Blog
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Improvements and challenges in UK’s new guidance on statelessness applications
6 December 2019 | Cynthia Orchard, Statelessness Policy and Casework Coordinator at Consonant (formerly Asylum Aid)The new Tottenham Hotspur football team manager, José Mourinho, recently vowed that he won't repeat his past mistakes, but instead will make new mistakes.
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The Convention on the Rights of the Child at 30: Action still needed to fulfil every child’s right to a nationality in Europe
27 November 2019 | Khadija Badri, Advocacy and Engagement Officer at the European Network on StatelessnessOn World Children’s Day, politicians, civil society representatives, children and others gathered at the European Parliament for a high-level conference celebrating 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
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Unsettled Status – The CJEU’s judgment in Bilali C-720/17 on statelessness and subsidiary protection
22 November 2019 | Jo Venkov, Lawyer and writer on statelessness, identity, citizenship and belongingThis blog considers the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Bilali v Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl C-720/17. The decision of the CJEU is that subsidiary protection could be revoked even though the mistake lay with the Austrian authorities, and not with the Applicant. Austria does not have a statelessness determination procedure.
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Churches’ response to statelessness: challenging the policies and rhetoric creating statelessness
14 November 2019 | Rev. Dr. Nathan Hosler, Director of the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy and a pastor at the Church of the BrethrenReligious institutions and their extended networks offer valuable avenues to address statelessness. These deep-rooted communities provide care for displaced and marginalized and can challenge laws and policies which fuel discrimination.
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Even where countries in Europe recognise marriage equality, children born to same-sex families remain at risk of statelessness
7 November 2019 | Björn Sieverding, Network of European LGBTIQ* Families Associations (NELFA), Vice PresidentEvery year the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map shows that the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer people (LGBTIQ*) are still not equally respected in the European Union. This gap also affects children of LGBTIQ* parents and while many (mostly Western) countries have permanently changed their laws and regulations within the last two decades to adequately recognise LGBTIQ* people and their families, there are still many legal gaps to fill.
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Ukraine’s most vulnerable children deserve a passport too
31 October 2019 | Anna Babko, Legal analyst at the CF “The Right to Protection”Children born in the occupied territories of Ukraine face a real risk of statelessness. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, only 43 percent of children born in the non-government controlled territories (NGCA) of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have obtained Ukrainian birth certificates.
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Rising to the challenge: promoting the voices of stateless people in Europe
24 October 2019 | Khadija Badri, Advocacy and Engagement Officer at the European Network on StatelessnessThe absence of stateless voices is not due to a lack of individuals’ willingness to speak out and be involved in the debates and decision-making processes which affect them. At least, that’s what our work with people affected by statelessness tells us.
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Dutch municipalities take matters into their own hands while national government fails to provide solution for stateless people in the Netherlands
16 October 2019 | Marlotte van Dael (Project coordinator & Researcher at ASKV Refugee Support) & Rene Rouwette (Executive Director at Kompass)After years of advocacy efforts by civil society and UNHCR to persuade the Dutch government to improve its protection of stateless people, the Government published a first draft of a legislative proposal for a statelessness determination procedure in 2016.
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Statelessness is back (not that it ever went away...)
10 October 2019 | Guy Goodwin-Gill, Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, OxfordCitizenship deprivation and statelessness are very much back in fashion. States increasingly resort to such measures to deal with those returning from foreign wars, or as a sanction for those otherwise deemed undesirable and unwanted – it must certainly seem easier than living up to their obligations actually to combat terrorist activities or war crimes or crimes against humanity (see here).
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Ahead of next week’s UN global meeting in Geneva: Why Europe must redouble its efforts to tackle statelessness
2 October 2019 | Chris Nash, Director of the European Network on StatelessnessOn Monday, governments and regional institutions from across the globe will gather in Geneva for UNHCR’s High-Level Segment on Statelessness (HLS) which will take place during the 70th annual plenary session of the Executive Committee of the High...