In Nepal, the Law, Justice and Human Rights
Committee of the House of Representatives of
Nepal’s Federal Parliament and the Forum for
Women, Law and Development organized a meeting
with senior parliamentarians to discuss the pending
Citizenship Act Amendment Bill. The Bill would
introduce nationality by descent to children born
to at least one parent who acquired citizenship by
birth and grant Nepali mothers the right to confer
nationality to their children in situations where the
father is not identified. These two provisions could
facilitate access to Nepali citizenship for over 1
million persons.
Europe
In April, UNHCR provided a virtual presentation to
the United Kingdom Royal Statistical Society on
the issue of statelessness statistics, specifically
highlighting the ongoing work and challenges with
the development of International Recommendations
on Statelessness Statistics to be presented to the
UN Statistical Commission for adoption in March
2023.
In Italy, UNHCR renewed its partnership with three
Universities in Naples, Rome and Turin, to run
statelessness legal clinics. Until the end of 2022, 18
law students, supported by qualified lawyers, will
provide free legal advice to stateless persons.
Stateless and formerly stateless activists founded
Union Italiana Apolidi (Italian Stateless Union),
the first stateless-led organization in Italy. UNHCR
financially supported the formal registration of the
organization. The organization will work towards
community building and empowerment and work to
ensure that the voices of stateless persons are heard
and to advocate for their protection and human
rights.
reduction of statelessness and the implementation
of the government’s 2019 HLS pledges. Out of the
545 registered stateless persons in Azerbaijan,
154 so far have applied for naturalization. UNHCR
provided legal assistance to 74 persons and covered
the naturalisation administrative fees for 54 stateless
persons.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, UNHCR organised
a high-level Round Table on eradicating
statelessness in Sarajevo in May. During the
roundtable, participants discussed outstanding
actions required to end statelessness. Participants
included government authorities in charge of
citizenship, civil registration, guardianship and
free legal aid, the Institution of Ombudsmen for
Human Rights, UNICEF, OSCE and the Association
Vasa Prava BiH. The roundtable resulted in a set
of recommendations, including access to birth
registration, residence records and documentation,
and access to free legal aid.
In June, UNHCR participated in the statelessness
subgroup meeting of the Expert Group on Refugee,
IDP and Statelessness Statistics (EGRISS), aimed at
finalizing the draft International Recommendations
on Statelessness Statistics (IROSS), ahead of
submission to the UN Statistical Commission in
March 2023. The event was held in Copenhagen
and brought together representatives from 15 States
and 11 institutions. The IROSS is aimed at collecting
more and better official statistics on statelessness.
In North Macedonia, the Ministry of Justice
established a working group tasked with the
development of a draft Law on Civil Registration.
This presents opportunities to include relevant
provisions, including on late birth registration which
is an important safeguard to prevent statelessness.
In Azerbaijan, UNHCR and the State Migration
Service organized a meeting of the Working Group
on Statelessness (WGS). The WGS includes six key
government stakeholders and UNHCR and focuses
on tracking progress towards the prevention and
UNHCR > The Campaign to End Statelessness | April – June 2022 Update
Members of the newly-established stateless-led organization, Unione
Italiana Apolidi. © Unione Italiana Apolidi
8
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents