#statelesskids

#StatelessKids in Macedonia - Our member MYLA (Macedonian Young Lawyers Association) and ENS Youth Ambassadors did teaching in high schools as part of their awareness raising.

Plus they’ve done this amazing video which was aired on various TV stations.

#StatelessKids in Serbia - Serbia was one of seven priority countries for the #StatelessKids campaign where ENS worked in partnership with Praxis to raise awareness and promote measures to ensure that children can realise their right to a nationality.

"We wanted young people to be aware that children at risk of statelessness exist in their close surroundings, that they probably see them on the streets and maybe even know some of them."  -- Dijana and Ivana, ENS Youth Ambassadors

Read an full interview with ENS Youth Ambassadors Diajan and Ivana and Praxis Executive Director Ivanka Kostic

In Poland our partner Halina Niec Legal Aid Center went to schools to talk to students about childhood statelessness and what it means to live without a nationality.

This is message from a postcard written by a 15-year old Polish student to the country’s President as part of the #StatelessKids campaign

Dear Mr President,

There are many stateless people living in Poland. They have no chance of a normal life, they cannot access higher education or even rent an apartment. Did you know about this? I didn’t. Now that I do, I would like to ask you to make Poland sign the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Sincerely,

The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘the 1989 Convention’) requires States Parties to ensure the right of every child to acquire a nationality. Notwithstanding this obligation, incidences of child statelessness remain in Europe and in that regard European states have failed to live up to their international commitments. 

A want of nationality means that a child has no home in the world to which he or she belongs as of right. Moreover, as a result, often that child will lack access to rights, services, standards of protection and the tools necessary to ensure a life lived in dignity with opportunity for personal development.

Surprisingly, there are hundreds of thousands of stateless persons in Europe and statelessness is often passed down from parent to child without action being taken by states to ensure that a durable solution is found by way of acquisition of nationality.

It is not hard to make provision to eliminate existing incidences of statelessness and to ensure that prospective cases do not arise. However, it will take concerted effort by states to make revisions to their respective national laws and administrative procedures and practice.

At the heart of such an exercise is the core task for each state to ensure that all children born stateless on its territory automatically acquire its nationality at birth by operation of law, or as soon as possible afterwards. This is consistent with the 1989 Convention (articles 3, 7), whereby the best interests of a child are a primary consideration when making provision for a child to acquire a nationality.

Moreover, as the excellent European Network on Statelessness (‘ENS’) report http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/ENS_NoChildStateless_final.pdf” No Child Should Be Stateless (September 2015) advocates, further special measures are required of states, to ‘actively facilitate access to nationality where statelessness arises, including the enhanced identification of relevant cases, in order to avoid such scenarios as where a child is labelled as being of “unknown nationality” for a prolonged period of time.’ 

In addition the report recommends improvements to the provision of information on applicable nationality procedures to those affected, as well as the resolution of the structural problems that inhibit the enjoyment of nationality, for example through the identification and elimination of barriers that restrict access to birth registration for groups vulnerable to exclusion from belonging to the country in which they are present.

Among the groups at particular risk of statelessness, the report identifies: 

· Children born to irregular migrants or to Refugees 

· Children of same-sex couples 

· Children commissioned by European parents through international 

   commercial surrogacy, and 

 · Children who have been abandoned 

Among the recommendations to governments found in the report, the following stand out as particularly important: 

· To design and implement a National Action Plan as part of UNHCR’s #ibelong campaign, which seeks to eradicate statelessness by 2024 

· To accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 1997 European Convention on Nationality 

· To implement measures to fulfil children’s right to a nationality, in accordance with article 7 of the 1989 Convention and General Comment No. 5 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Such measures may include:

        (i) The removal of any reservations to the relevant treaties 

        (ii) Legislative review and reform in accordance with international 

         standards and principles 

        (iii) Child Rights Impact Assessments 

        (iv) Outreach and information campaigns 

        (v) Collaboration with civil society and international cooperation. 

· To review and improve data collection and reporting methods relating to childhood statelessness, including birth registration, disaggregating such data by age and gender 

· To build the capacity of relevant administrative and judicial bodies (by training among other things) to identify and address situations of childhood statelessness and to ensure that actions are taken in accordance with relevant international standards, jurisprudence and related authoritative guidance of international bodies such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNHCR