“Everyone has the right to a nationality”

Blog

The blog entries represent the views of the authors but not those of the Network, unless otherwise noted.

  • An unexpected frontrunner - Tackling statelessness in Iraq

    8 February 2013 | Karel Hendriks

    It may surprise some that in 2010, no country in the world achieved a larger reduction in statelessness than Iraq. A new constitution granting the right to confer citizenship to men and women equally, and a nationality law that is among the most progressive in the Middle East have made Iraq into something of a frontrunner. A number of articles in the nationality law even explicitly allow for the re-acquisition of nationality by groups that were denaturalised during Saddam Hussein's regime.

  • Engaging the Human Rights World on Statelessness

    29 January 2013 | Amal de Chickera

    2013 has crept up on us as all New Years do; too soon, with too much work undone and with too many problems of the previous year left unresolved. This rather sceptical viewpoint could be applied to the professional life of many individuals and organisations, but also to the larger issues and challenges face by humanity. One such challenge is statelessness and its massively detrimental impact on the quality of life, stability and security of those it affects.

  • Statelessness Status Determination in Italy: Quality Assurance Needed!

    23 January 2013 | Laura Bingham, legal officer for the equality/citizenship issue area of the Open Society Justice Initiative

    Previous posts have highlighted the importance of statelessness status determination procedures for providing protection to stateless persons (here and here, for example), as well as the need to ensure that such procedures operate...

  • Governments should act in the best interest of stateless children

    15 January 2013 | Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe

    Nils Muižnieks, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, has today published a Human Rights Comment on the statelessness of children in Europe, which he reproduces here for ENS as a guest blog contribution. He highlights the root causes of this serious human rights problem and indicates measures that states should take to overcome it.

  • Because quality matters - in statelessness determination as well

    8 January 2013 | Alajos Lángi

    For those readers who follow the European Network on Statelssness (ENS) blog, Hungary may be well-known for its advanced stateless protection regime and leading role in the implementation of the statelessness conventions. However, there are issues surrounding the procedure that Hungarian stakeholders and UNHCR have deemed worthy to try to improve in a joint quality assurance initiative – the so-called Quality Evaluation and Development in the Statelessness Determination Procedure (QEDS) project. The project is implemented by UNHCR and the...

  • Growing support for establishment of statelessness procedure in the Netherlands

    17 December 2012 | Laura van Waas, Statelessness Programme

    At the end of 2011, UNHCR published the findings of a mapping project which looked at the situation of stateless people in the Netherlands. While the country has been a party to both UN conventions on statelessness for several decades, this study uncovered a number of gaps in the implementation of these international norms.

  • The CoE Tackles Statelessness, but ends up Mired in the politics of Multiple Nationalities

    16 November 2012 | Ivanka Kostic, Executive Director, Praxis

    Recently, I had the privilege to be invited as a speaker to a hearing on the subject of Access to Nationality for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). I was asked to address the issue of stateless Roma in Serbia and the Western Balkan Region and actions that the state should take in order to avoid statelessness. Below I present the impressions that I took away from this interesting hearing. 

  • Under the Radar and Under Protected: The Urgent Need to Address Stateless Children’s Rights

    8 November 2012 | Inge Sturkenboom, UNHCR Regional Protection Officer (Statelessness)

    UNHCR estimates there are up to six million stateless children around the world, whose lives are insecure and futures are uncertain. Many among them are denied access to education and healthcare. Stateless children are vulnerable to labour or sexual exploitation, human trafficking and abuse. Some stateless children are locked up alongside adults and deported.

  • European Pro Bono Award and its implications for statelessness

    2 November 2012 | Dr. Neža Kogovšek Šalamon, Peace Institute Director

    Last week the Peace Institute Slovenia (a member of the European Network on Statelessness) along with the Italian attorneys Andrea Saccucci and Anton Giulio Lana received PILnet’s 2012 European Pro Bono Award for exemplary partnership in the public interest. The award honours the successful litigation before the European Court of Human Rights concerning the issue of “erased people” that Mr. Lana and Mr. Saccucci achieved in partnership with the Peace Institute in the case Kurić and other v. Slovenia.

  • An instant best practice: Philippines’ new Stateless Status Determination Procedure

    29 October 2012 | Laura van Waas, Senior Researcher and Manager, Statelessness Programme

    The Philippines made history this week by becoming the first state in Asia to put a statelessness determination procedure in place. This move follows the country’s ratification, just over a year ago now, of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the pledge made at last December’s UNHCR High Level Meeting to proceed with establishing a procedure.

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