1. STATELESS PERSONS Stateless persons are persons who are not considered nationals by any State (under the operation of its law). According to the estimates, there are about 12 million stateless persons in the world today, and more than a third of them are children. They are denied rights that most people take for granted. Their access to health care, education, employment, political participation and movement is limited, they cannot enter into marriage and have no personal documents. It is as if they did not exist, and they often live their lives in such circumstances. The fact that statelessness is passed onto the next generation - from parents to children is disturbing. Short of serious steps to prevent and eradicate it, the number of stateless persons may rapidly increase. The root causes leading to the occurrence of statelessness are different, these may include conflicts of law, cases of state succession, after which the citizens of newly formed states are left stateless, as well as administrative practices associated with citizenship. In most of the situations, statelessness is directly related to, or the result of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or gender. Even today, there are countries that deny women the right to pass on their nationality to children in the same way as men do, which results in the transmission of statelessness to the next generation. Interestingly, most stateless persons have never even crossed the border of the state they were born in. The state in which they have been living all their life and which they consider to be their own does not recognize their right to citizenship. This is a result of citizenship laws which do not provide for adequate mechanisms to prevent statelessness and/or deficient administrative practices that contribute to its occurrence and spreading out. In 2014, on the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, UNHCR launched a global campaign #IBelong, aimed at eradicating statelessness in 10 years. This Convention, together with the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, constitutes an international legal basis for the eradication of statelessness. UNHCR’s campaign aims to exert influence on as many countries as possible to accede to the Conventions and adapt their laws and practices related to the acquisition, restoration and loss of citizenship to them. The problem of statelessness, unlike many other global problems, can be solved provided that there is political will. Within its mandate, UNHCR in Serbia has been carrying out activities aimed at preventing and eradicating statelessness for years. It has been found that this problem largely affects the population of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians (RAE). As a consequence of the impossibility to register births and to access personal documents, members of these minorities that are highly marginalized and subjected to discrimination, 8 PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA PROGRESS REPORT 2010–2015 cannot prove their citizenship and therefore cannot effectively enjoy basic social, economic, cultural and political rights. These persons are believed to be at risk of statelessness while actually being subjected to the same denials as stateless persons. UNHCR’s activities in combating statelessness target members of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian minority precisely for that reason. After many years of UNHCR’s emphasis placed on the significance of the problem of statelessness, the Republic of Serbia, which is a signatory to both statelessness conventions, has expressed a genuine interest in the last four years in finally eradicating the phenomenon of stateless persons in Serbia. Combating statelessness in Serbia is no longer a dead letter. The relevant activities have already been implemented within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by UNHCR – Representation in Serbia, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Ombudsman in 2012. Numerous activities on the ground as well as amendments of relevant regulations followed the agreement. The new judicial procedure of registration in the registry of births, together with the amendments to the regulations governing the residence, has made it possible to obtain personal documents, and consequently citizenship status for citizens who were not able to obtain it for years despite the fact that their families have lived in Serbia for generations. Thus, not only they, but also their children, managed to avoid the destiny of stateless persons, or persons at risk of statelessness. Systemic changes have been accompanied by targeted trainings of judges, registrars, employees in social welfare centers and the Ministry of Interior involved in procedures for obtaining personal documents. In the absence of a law on free legal aid, UNHCR has continued to provide funding for representation of persons at risk of statelessness before various government authorities, and assistance in obtaining personal documents. The whole system has been rounded off through the cooperation established in the framework of the Technical Group which is composed of representatives of UNHCR, civil society, and of all the government agencies responsible for the procedures in which stateless persons exercise the right to access to personal documents. In such a way, the exchange of information on obstacles that arise in practice, as well as the resolution of specific, individual cases has already been ensured. In the region, Serbia has become role model of how to tackle the problem, which has resulted in neighboring countries applying the same approach. However, the circle of “legal invisibility” has not been closed and it is therefore necessary to take several key steps. In order to eliminate the remaining problems and gaps it would be necessary to once again “measure” the extent of the problem and locate where its hot spots are today. To this end UNHCR conducted a survey that is supposed to identify the number of persons at risk of statelessness in Serbia and the reasons for them persisting in this situation despite all the activities undertaken. PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA PROGRESS REPORT 2010–2015 9