{"id":23332,"date":"2021-07-08T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/?p=23332"},"modified":"2021-07-08T15:27:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T12:27:11","slug":"building-back-better-for-stateless-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/building-back-better-for-stateless-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Back Better For Stateless People"},"content":{"rendered":"

This joint statement is an urgent call to States, UN agencies, donors and other stakeholders to learn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and take sustained action to correct past mistakes and prioritise protecting stateless people\u2019s rights and the right to nationality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In June 2020, 84 civil society actors issued a joint statement \u2018In Solidarity with the Stateless\u2019<\/a><\/strong> calling on: States, UN agencies, human rights, humanitarian and public health actors, donors and the media to address the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stateless people and those at risk of statelessness. One year on, the concerns expressed in that statement remain largely unaddressed, with the situation of stateless people further deteriorating, partly due to failures to acknowledge and respond to their specific contexts and uphold their rights. Moreover, new concerns and challenges, particularly around vaccine inequity, have also emerged. The 106 civil society actors<\/strong>, co-signatories to this statement, are deeply concerned that many States and other key stakeholders have been unable or unwilling to learn from past mistakes and have failed to adequately prioritise and resource the practical steps that can and must be taken to protect stateless people and the right to nationality.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have witnessed the cost of <\/span><\/span>institutional and public ignorance and structural violence towards stateless <\/span><\/span>people (and those at risk of statelessness) and remain deeply concerned <\/span><\/span>about the lasting detrimental impact on an estimated 15 million stateless <\/span><\/span>people worldwide, and tens of millions whose nationality is under threat. As <\/span><\/span>observed in the 2020 joint statement, the entrenched structural problems <\/span><\/span>that stateless people and those at risk of statelessness face in \u2018normal\u2019 times <\/span><\/span>contributed to their disproportionate suffering and exclusion during the <\/span><\/span>pandemic. COVID-19 measures, including border closures and movement <\/span><\/span>restrictions, discriminated against stateless people, who were also largely <\/span><\/span>excluded from health assistance, emergency relief and economic support <\/span><\/span>packages. Disruptions to birth and civil registrations affected access to <\/span><\/span>nationality, while NGOs and community groups working on nationality rights <\/span><\/span>issues faced serious disruptions to their operations and funding. As some <\/span><\/span>leaders exploited the pandemic to grab more power, increase surveillance <\/span><\/span>and derogate from human rights obligations under declared states of <\/span><\/span>emergency, non-citizens and members of minority groups, including those <\/span><\/span>rendered stateless in their own country, were increasingly scapegoated, <\/span><\/span>vilified and targeted for hate-speech, arbitrary detention and even expulsion. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One year on, civil society groups have documented the catastrophic impact <\/span><\/span>of the pandemic and State responses to it on stateless people and those at <\/span><\/span>risk of statelessness. In particular, the June 2021 report <\/span><\/span>\u2018Together We Can: <\/span><\/span>The COVID-19 Impact on Stateless People and a Roadmap for Change\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/a> by <\/span><\/span>the COVID-19 Emergency Statelessness Fund Consortium and the April 2021 <\/span><\/span>\u2018Situation assessment of statelessness, health, and COVID-19 in Europe\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/a> by <\/span><\/span>the European Network on Statelessness provide empirical evidence in this <\/span><\/span>regard. These reports also flag emerging good practices in some States, <\/span><\/span>which all States are urged to follow. Some of the main observations of civil <\/span><\/span>society groups include:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n