On Tuesday 14 September (14.00-15.00 CEST) you are invited to attend a webinar marking the publication of a new Statelessness Index briefing on statelessness determination and protection in Europe.
Stateless people face the risk of rights violations every day. The main reason for this is that most European states still don’t have an established process to identify stateless people and provide them with a route out of limbo.
All states should have a formal statelessness determination procedure that is fair, efficient, and easily accessible. This would allow them to identify and determine who is stateless, and then grant them adequate protection status and rights. Our new briefing shows that some countries have recently taken positive steps towards this goal, but many are falling behind in fulfilling their international obligations.
The speakers will discuss good practice and challenges with examples from countries around Europe. We will hear about the impact on stateless migrants and refugees of not having adequate routes to protection in place, about some of the challenges of introducing new procedures, and the benefits of having a procedure. The event will also discuss how to galvanise action at national and regional levels to ensure that States and regional institutions take steps to improve the protection available to stateless people and resolve statelessness. The event and our new briefing are intended to help prepare the ground for a major regional intergovernmental conference on statelessness organised by the Council of Europe and UNHCR which will take place in Strasbourg on 23/24 September.
The webinar and briefing are aimed at those working on statelessness, with migrants and refugees, as well as representatives of refugee, migrant and stateless communities, lawyers, civil society, regional institutions, State authorities, UN agencies, and others with an interest in the issue.
