Dear colleagues and partners,
Imagine a world in which you don’t belong. Where the national education, health, and social systems surrounding you are off limits, no matter how long you’ve been trying. A world in which you can neither receive a birth certificate, a passport, nor access a marriage license to wed your partner. Living in the shadows, surrounded by but excluded from society. Now imagine enduring all of this for want of one piece of paper. A signature acknowledging your existence. A legal identity. A nationality and a place to call home.
For the millions of stateless people around the world, this legal invisibility is their daily reality. Whether because of discrimination, state succession or legislative gaps, most have faced life-long struggles to access even the most basic human rights.
A decade ago, UNHCR launched the #IBelong campaign. Its objective – to end statelessness in ten years – was ambitious. And huge strides have been made.
Over 565,000 stateless people and people with undetermined nationalities – those awaiting having their status determined – have now gained nationality. In 2019, five years after the launch of #IBelong, Kyrgyzstan became the first country to resolve all known cases of statelessness. Turkmenistan achieved that same milestone in September 2024. Other countries, including Kenya and Viet Nam have resolved protracted statelessness situations amongst minority groups within their borders, and there have been 77 new accessions to the 1954 and 1961 United Nations Statelessness Conventions. Additionally, almost 40 countries have strengthened their legal frameworks to prevent statelessness, including by introducing laws and closing gaps to ensure no child is born stateless.
As Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan have proven, statelessness is a solvable issue. But it requires political will and needs a multi-stakeholder approach, as well as dedicated international support.
Last month, at the 75th Session of UNHCR's Executive Committee, the Global Alliance to End Statelessness was launched. The Global Alliance aims to accelerate solutions to bring an end to statelessness, by adopting the whole-of-society approach called for in the Global Compact on Refugees. Indeed, the Compact contains steps to address statelessness, including calling on States to create national and international action plans to end it, and at the Global Refugee Forum 2023, the Multi-stakeholder Pledge on Ending Statelessness, which supports the new Global Alliance, was launched.
Among its many priorities, the Global Alliance will seek shared solutions that target the inequality, discriminatory laws and denial of human rights that lead to the marginalization of a person’s very existence. Today, 24 countries still deny women the right to pass nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. Addressing such discriminatory laws and practices is vital in preventing both statelessness and gender-based violence, and many of the commitments made towards the Multi-stakeholder Pledge on Gender Equality and Protection from Gender-Based Violence look to address statelessness.
As Nosizi Dube, statelessness advocate and member of Kenya's Shona community who was formerly stateless said during UNHCR’s Executive Committee’s High-Level Segment on Statelessness, “When you are stateless, you live in the shadows”. However, she went on to say that in gaining citizenship, she feels “included in the world… I have the power and the freedom to live up to my potential… It was a very delightful moment for me”.
So, as we support the newly launched Global Alliance and continue to work on the implementation of the multi-stakeholder pledges, we are hopeful for many more delights to come, thanks to the collaboration and progress we are already seeing. Together, we can accelerate solutions and end statelessness once and for all.
The Global Compact on Refugees Coordination Team
