Joint Submission
to the Human Rights Council
at the 46th Session
of the Universal Periodic Review
NORTH MACEDONIA
Introduction
1.
The Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA), the European Roma Rights Centre
(ERRC), the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) and the European Network on
Statelessness (ENS) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR),
on the right to a nationality and human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness in
North Macedonia.
2.
This submission focuses on:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
3.
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Reduction of statelessness of in situ populations
Children's right to a nationality and birth registration
Economic and social rights of stateless people
Statelessness determination procedure for migratory stateless populations
The Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA)1 has been actively working on the
problem of statelessness in the direction of its prevention and eradication for more than
12 years. Within the Project Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness, which MYLA
implements with the UNHCR Office in North Macedonia, the organisation provides free
legal aid to those in procedures for additional registration in the Republic of North
Macedonia, regulation of residence and admission to citizenship. MYLA is a member of
the coordinating body – working group within the action for additional inscription of
births and personal names. Since 2014, in parallel with UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign to
end statelessness, MYLA started a campaign for raising awareness among the population
about the problem of statelessness. MYLA broadcast a video on the prevention of
childhood statelessness2 on several national television channels. MYLA also published a
brochure "Our Invisible Children" 3 about stateless children and organised a photo
exhibition. MYLA participated in "Regional Research on Statelessness" 4 together with
organizations from Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
For more information, see http://www.myla.org.mk/index.php/en/.
For further information see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_URh2-EsK8.
3 For further information see: http://myla.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Nasite-nevidlivi-deca.pdf.
4For further information see: http://myla.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Regionalno-istrazuvanje-za-bezdrzavjanstvoV01-01-MK-Preview.pdf.
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