Our #StatelessKids campaign is recruiting new ambassadors to help us end childhood statelessness

Blog
Jan Brulc, European Network on Statelessness
/ 3 mins read
Image

No child should be stateless! Yet as we were (again) reminded yesterday by the Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks in his report on Cyprus statelessness continues to endure because states are failing to ensure that all children acquire nationality. However it is a problem that is entirely solvable. The report puts forward the following recommendation:  

“…the Commissioner calls on the authorities to adopt legislative measures to ensure the full and effective protection of children against statelessness and to grant nationality to children of unknown parents. In this context, Cyprus is urged to complete the long-pending process of accession to the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, and to accede to the 1997 European Convention on Nationality.”

The Commissioner’s criticism of Cyprus won’t come as a surprise to many. Our comparative research last year identified Cyprus as one of the worst offending countries in Europe when it comes to preventing childhood statelessness. And it is not just Cyprus who is condemning children to a life of no nationality. Our report "No Child should be Stateless"  identified a worrying array of problems in the finer details of many nationality laws as well as in the laws governing procedures for birth registration, which helps to establish and document a child’s nationality. Numerous European countries have failed to include basic safeguards in the law.

As a result thousands of children are growing up without nationality. For those affected this can mean growing up without access to rights and services, denied opportunities, unfulfilled potential and a sense of never quite belonging. It brings hardship and anguish to children and their parents alike. 

Next stage of our #StatelessKids campaign

Most children – and adults – take their nationality for granted: they do not think about how or why they got it, what it allows them to do or what would be different if they had another nationality. Few have ever wondered what life would be like without any nationality at all or even know that it is possible to be stateless. There is a fundamental lack of awareness about why some people have no nationality, what impact this has and how it can be remedied.

This presents a problem when trying to address the situation of stateless persons in Europe. The lack of knowledge makes it difficult for people to understand and act. To tackle this, we will be training a group of young ambassadors at a three day Youth Congress in Brussles under the umbrella of our #StatelessKids campaign.

Organised with the support from the Maastricht University and UNHCR the event will bring together a group of 35 selected young delegates and provide them with trainings designed to equip them with skills necessary to become Youth Ambassadors supporting the #StatelessKids campaign in their own country and across Europe. Participants will have the opportunity to hear from leading experts and academics, UN agencies and Members of the European Parliament on the issue, as well as journalists, advocacy and communications experts on how to advocate for change. Registration will remain open until 15 May.

We hope this will help galvanise new support and bring Europe an important step closer towards ending statelessness. Watch this space for more news on the campaign. 

We've just opened registration for #StatelessKids Youth Forum, a three day event in Brussels designed to engage with...

Posted by European Network on Statelessness on Monday, 21 March 2016
Related topics