MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) — The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, launched a global campaign Tuesday aimed at bringing an end to statelessness by 2024, the agency said in a report.
“UNHCR is today launching a global 'I Belong' campaign aimed at ending within 10 years the problem of statelessness – a devastating legal limbo for the millions of people worldwide who lack any nationality and the human rights protections that go with it,” the report read.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, UNHCR Special Envoy and acclaimed actress Angelina Jolie, alongside other celebrities and global opinion-leaders published Tuesday an Open Letter to mark the campaign.
According to the report, the letter said "statelessness is inhuman. We believe it is time to end this injustice". The letter referred to the 1954 UN Convention related to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, in which nations agreed to eradicate statelessness.
But despite the 60-year-old conventions currently accessed by 144 states, the campaign comes amid growing number of conflicts around the world and new risks experienced by stateless people.
According to the report, at least ten million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every ten minutes. With no nationality, they are unable to access rights and services offered to citizens of a country. These include education, health care and employment.
"Statelessness makes people feel like their very existence is a crime," Guterres was quoted as saying, adding that the 10 year time-line was a challenge that the campaign “cannot afford to fail”.
The report however notes progress in countries as Cote d'Ivoire where 2013 legal reforms allowed for long-term residency to stateless people caused by a 10-year-long armed conflict. In Kyrgyzstan more than 65,000 former USSR citizens have acquired its citizenship in the last five years.
The UNHCR also published on Tuesday a Special Report on Statelessness, outlining a global action plan to bring an end to the crisis.
