Putting an End to Statelessness
Putting an End to Statelessness
Soka Gakkai International, 22 Mar 2016
URL: http://commonthreads.sgi.org/post/141161740738/putting-an-end-to-statelessness
Angèle Dikongué-Atangana talks about the ongoing partnership between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to improve the protection of the rights of asylum-seekers, refugees and those at risk of statelessness in West Africa.
A stateless person is an individual that no state recognizes as a citizen according to its legislation. Given that nationality is often a prerequisite to the enjoyment of all human rights, including access to education, health services and legal services, the lack of a nationality can have a very serious impact on the lives of those affected. Forced to live in the shadows, they cannot go to school, see a doctor, get a job, open a bank account, buy a house, vote or get legally married, among many other obstacles. Undermining human security and causing great suffering, this situation can be perpetuated from generation to generation, putting large groups of people at risk of being stateless. This serious problem not only affects individuals but also has severe consequences for the development of a country and the stability of a region.
“A stateless person is an individual that no state recognizes as a citizen according to its legislation.”
In West Africa at least 750,000 people are stateless or at risk of statelessness, while there are more than 10 million stateless people worldwide. This figure is just an estimate, as there are many groups of people who could be stateless or at risk of statelessness that have not yet been evaluated. These individuals are typically in this situation because they have difficulties proving they possess links to a state due, for instance, to a lack of birth registration and personal documentation that traces their origins and could confirm their identity. Populations without birth certificates, abandoned children, undocumented stranded migrants and individuals living in areas of state succession and border disputes constitute some of the major groups of people at risk of statelessness in West Africa.
The Abidjan Ministerial Declaration
From February 23 to 25, 2015, the first regional Ministerial Conference on Statelessness in West Africa was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to discuss the scale of the problem in West Africa and the urgent need to combat it. The conference, which brought together delegates from the 15 countries in the region, was jointly organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It resulted in the adoption of 62 recommendations designed to end statelessness and the adoption of a 26-point ministerial declaration that has since been referred to as the “Abidjan Ministerial Declaration.”
Acknowledging that Africa does not have the necessary legal instruments to protect the right to a nationality and end statelessness, the Abidjan Ministerial Declaration urged the African Union to finalize and adopt a protocol on the right to a nationality and the fight against statelessness in Africa.
Some three months later, on May 19, 2015, the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS endorsed the Abidjan Ministerial Declaration at the 47th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State that was held in Accra, Ghana. Liz Ahua, regional representative of UNHCR in West Africa, said that their endorsement of the declaration “clearly indicates their willingness to eradicate this phenomenon and places the region at the forefront of this fight.” Their endorsement of the declaration also has a continent-wide impact, as it stresses the urgency and importance of the completion and adoption of the protocol by African institutions.
West African states have thus formally joined UNHCR’s global campaign to eradicate statelessness by 2024. Among other commitments, the member states committed themselves to developing national action plans to end statelessness, ratifying and implementing international conventions on statelessness and reviewing their laws on nationality.
Key Challenges
Major problems facing ECOWAS include political instability and poor governance of member states, weakness and lack of diversification of national economies and poor or absent infrastructure for transportation and communications. ECOWAS also faces various social problems endemic to the region and an indifference to progress that is manifested by some of its members.
In addition, the proliferation of small arms has rendered the region volatile and insecure. Election results are often disputed. Although the free movement of persons has been achieved, uniform tariffs and other barriers are yet to be achieved.
“In West Africa, at least 750,000 people are stateless or at risk of statelessness, while there are more than 10 million stateless people worldwide.”
One of the social problems that hinder the achievement of the economic and political goals of ECOWAS is the lack of women’s rights in the region. Its main program to eliminate disparity between men and women is the Gender Development Center in Dakar, Senegal.
Health care is another concern. Corruption at border crossings hinders the free flow of humanitarian aid. Another major problem is human trafficking, especially of women and children, but a lack of statistics and other information hinders law enforcement. Public safety concerns include the lack of building codes and infrastructure sufficient to handle natural disasters in the region.
Ongoing Cooperation
Over the past 14 years, since the signing of a memorandum of understanding in November 2001, UNHCR and ECOWAS have enjoyed a mutual and enduring collaboration. The two organizations have worked together to facilitate advancement, build capacity and strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest. These areas are: the protection of persons of concern to UNHCR; the promotion of refugee law; addressing root causes of refugee situations, crisis prevention and early warning; and advocacy and awareness raising. Activities in these areas intrinsically aim to seek durable solutions for asylum-seekers and refugees, promoting their free movement and right to residence, peace and security, conflict resolution and the prevention and strengthening of humanitarian emergency preparedness and response capacity.
In July 2011, ECOWAS, in collaboration with UNHCR and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and with the support of the Government of Finland, co-organized the first ECOWAS Ministerial Conference on Humanitarian Assistance and Internal Displacement held in Abuja, Nigeria. This resulted in the signing and ratification of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) by nine ECOWAS member states, which helped bring the convention into force the following year. The Kampala Convention is the world’s first continental instrument that legally binds governments to protect the rights and wellbeing of the people forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, disasters and human rights abuses.
The ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons has served as the framework for the legal component of the local integration of Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees. Under this, refugees who opted not to return were issued residence permits across states in the subregion hosting refugees and were given livelihood packages.
In 2006, UNHCR facilitated the establishment of the ECOWAS Emergency Response Team (EERT), which forms part of the civilian component of the ECOWAS Standby Force and assists in providing humanitarian response to victims of conflict and natural disasters within the subregion.
UNHCR and the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice have also collaborated in capacity-building initiatives and numerous activities, including a biannual UNHCR-ECOWAS Ambassadors’ Retreat. The retreat is usually a forum to review and plan activities for the years ahead.
In regard to more recent partnerships toward eradicating statelessness, on June 17, 2015, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice signed a framework document with UNHCR for cooperation in improving the protection of the rights of refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced persons, stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness in West Africa. The pact was signed in Abuja, Nigeria, by the president of the court, the Honorable Justice Maria de Céu Silva Monteiro, and myself as the UNHCR representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS.
Activities to be implemented under the framework document are broadly in the areas of training and capacity-building for judges and staff of the court and UNHCR. This includes giving advice on cases before the court and providing feedback on issues of mutual interest as well as information sharing.
A stateless person is an individual that no state recognizes as a citizen according to its legislation. Given that nationality is often a prerequisite to the enjoyment of all human rights, including access to education, health services and legal services, the lack of a nationality can have a very serious impact on the lives of those affected. Forced to live in the shadows, they cannot go to school, see a doctor, get a job, open a bank account, buy a house, vote or get legally married, among many other obstacles. Undermining human security and causing great suffering, this situation can be perpetuated from generation to generation, putting large groups of people at risk of being stateless. This serious problem not only affects individuals but also has severe consequences for the development of a country and the stability of a region.
“A stateless person is an individual that no state recognizes as a citizen according to its legislation.”
In West Africa at least 750,000 people are stateless or at risk of statelessness, while there are more than 10 million stateless people worldwide. This figure is just an estimate, as there are many groups of people who could be stateless or at risk of statelessness that have not yet been evaluated. These individuals are typically in this situation because they have difficulties proving they possess links to a state due, for instance, to a lack of birth registration and personal documentation that traces their origins and could confirm their identity. Populations without birth certificates, abandoned children, undocumented stranded migrants and individuals living in areas of state succession and border disputes constitute some of the major groups of people at risk of statelessness in West Africa.
The Abidjan Ministerial Declaration
From February 23 to 25, 2015, the first regional Ministerial Conference on Statelessness in West Africa was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to discuss the scale of the problem in West Africa and the urgent need to combat it. The conference, which brought together delegates from the 15 countries in the region, was jointly organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It resulted in the adoption of 62 recommendations designed to end statelessness and the adoption of a 26-point ministerial declaration that has since been referred to as the “Abidjan Ministerial Declaration.”
Acknowledging that Africa does not have the necessary legal instruments to protect the right to a nationality and end statelessness, the Abidjan Ministerial Declaration urged the African Union to finalize and adopt a protocol on the right to a nationality and the fight against statelessness in Africa.
Some three months later, on May 19, 2015, the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS endorsed the Abidjan Ministerial Declaration at the 47th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State that was held in Accra, Ghana. Liz Ahua, regional representative of UNHCR in West Africa, said that their endorsement of the declaration “clearly indicates their willingness to eradicate this phenomenon and places the region at the forefront of this fight.” Their endorsement of the declaration also has a continent-wide impact, as it stresses the urgency and importance of the completion and adoption of the protocol by African institutions.
West African states have thus formally joined UNHCR’s global campaign to eradicate statelessness by 2024. Among other commitments, the member states committed themselves to developing national action plans to end statelessness, ratifying and implementing international conventions on statelessness and reviewing their laws on nationality.
Key Challenges
Major problems facing ECOWAS include political instability and poor governance of member states, weakness and lack of diversification of national economies and poor or absent infrastructure for transportation and communications. ECOWAS also faces various social problems endemic to the region and an indifference to progress that is manifested by some of its members.
In addition, the proliferation of small arms has rendered the region volatile and insecure. Election results are often disputed. Although the free movement of persons has been achieved, uniform tariffs and other barriers are yet to be achieved.
“In West Africa, at least 750,000 people are stateless or at risk of statelessness, while there are more than 10 million stateless people worldwide.”
One of the social problems that hinder the achievement of the economic and political goals of ECOWAS is the lack of women’s rights in the region. Its main program to eliminate disparity between men and women is the Gender Development Center in Dakar, Senegal.
Health care is another concern. Corruption at border crossings hinders the free flow of humanitarian aid. Another major problem is human trafficking, especially of women and children, but a lack of statistics and other information hinders law enforcement. Public safety concerns include the lack of building codes and infrastructure sufficient to handle natural disasters in the region.
Ongoing Cooperation
Over the past 14 years, since the signing of a memorandum of understanding in November 2001, UNHCR and ECOWAS have enjoyed a mutual and enduring collaboration. The two organizations have worked together to facilitate advancement, build capacity and strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest. These areas are: the protection of persons of concern to UNHCR; the promotion of refugee law; addressing root causes of refugee situations, crisis prevention and early warning; and advocacy and awareness raising. Activities in these areas intrinsically aim to seek durable solutions for asylum-seekers and refugees, promoting their free movement and right to residence, peace and security, conflict resolution and the prevention and strengthening of humanitarian emergency preparedness and response capacity.
In July 2011, ECOWAS, in collaboration with UNHCR and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and with the support of the Government of Finland, co-organized the first ECOWAS Ministerial Conference on Humanitarian Assistance and Internal Displacement held in Abuja, Nigeria. This resulted in the signing and ratification of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) by nine ECOWAS member states, which helped bring the convention into force the following year. The Kampala Convention is the world’s first continental instrument that legally binds governments to protect the rights and wellbeing of the people forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, disasters and human rights abuses.
The ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons has served as the framework for the legal component of the local integration of Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees. Under this, refugees who opted not to return were issued residence permits across states in the subregion hosting refugees and were given livelihood packages.
In 2006, UNHCR facilitated the establishment of the ECOWAS Emergency Response Team (EERT), which forms part of the civilian component of the ECOWAS Standby Force and assists in providing humanitarian response to victims of conflict and natural disasters within the subregion.
UNHCR and the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice have also collaborated in capacity-building initiatives and numerous activities, including a biannual UNHCR-ECOWAS Ambassadors’ Retreat. The retreat is usually a forum to review and plan activities for the years ahead.
In regard to more recent partnerships toward eradicating statelessness, on June 17, 2015, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice signed a framework document with UNHCR for cooperation in improving the protection of the rights of refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced persons, stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness in West Africa. The pact was signed in Abuja, Nigeria, by the president of the court, the Honorable Justice Maria de Céu Silva Monteiro, and myself as the UNHCR representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS.
Activities to be implemented under the framework document are broadly in the areas of training and capacity-building for judges and staff of the court and UNHCR. This includes giving advice on cases before the court and providing feedback on issues of mutual interest as well as information sharing.