Existing global platforms have potential to address statelessness in the Americas. There
are two global initiatives particularly relevant to the issues this report describes. The
first is UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness.356 The goal of this initiative
is to make the Americas the first region to overcome statelessness. It calls on nations to
meet ten objectives, including improving the gathering of qualitative and quantitative
data, preventing statelessness by ensuring birth registration to every child born in the
territory, and issuing nationality documentation as a means to identify stateless populations and populations with undetermined nationality. 357
The second global initiative is the U.N. Global Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs),358 a series of goals for U.N members to achieve in the next 14 years to address
discrimination, exclusion, and inequality. Goal 16.9 reads: “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.” The SDGs call on states to focus efforts, coordinate activities, and follow through with concrete and specific actions at the domestic
level to match the global commitments established in this development agenda. Both
initiatives provide stakeholders with a framework which builds upon relevant international human rights obligations and development initiatives and funding to further
some of the aforementioned recommendations.
For all states, providing access to birth registration and identity documents is
a challenge, especially in reaching and serving members of indigenous groups, ethnic minority groups, migrants, and IDPs. Yet for jus soli states, the steps to address
these challenges are known and relatively straightforward to implement. Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, and other states in the region must take these steps if they are to meet their
obligations to everyone born in the Americas.
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CONCLUSIONS
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