Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 makes birth registration the focus for improving legal identity for all. Since the adoption of the SDGs, the link between legal identity and the fight to end statelessness has been strengthened. That is why SDG16.9 has come to be about more than birth registration. Rather, it is about the importance of government identification systems and good …
I previously wrote about two marginalised communities in Kenya, the Nubian and the Somali communities, and their struggle to obtain legal status and citizenship. Both communities face burdens not imposed on most other Kenyans. But they are not alone in campaigning for recognition as citizens of Kenya. In this blog I reflect on the recent progress made by the Shona …
In a previous blog I wrote about the many stateless people living in the states of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia and the plight that they face as the authorities in Malaysia ignore the true extent of the problem. Sabah and Sarawak states are on Borneo Island, part of East Malaysia. In this blog, I look again at the challenges …
One of the main ways to stem the Covid-19 pandemic is to track how many people have become ill, how many have died, how many have recovered. To tackle the virus effectively those that have been in contact with someone who has been ill or is a carrier need to be traced. They may need to be isolated. If and …
Late last year I discussed whether digital identity is the answer to universal individual legal identity. In this blog I look at a related issue: states which struggle to provide a legal identity for all are being asked to take a leap forward and harmonise their identity systems to make them interconnected and interoperable. What does this mean? Is this …
It has been six months since the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951 received its final update. I have written about the continued impact of updating Assam’s Register in previous blogs here and here. Around 2 million people are excluded after the final count. More and more is written about this crisis in the making, the impact it …
Approximately 1.1 billion people globally are without a legal identity[ref] https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/global-identification-challenge-who-are-1-billion-people-without-proof-identity [/ref]. The repercussions, both for states and for individuals are countless. And a solution is needed if we are to truly promote inclusivity and individuals’ access to their basic rights.
In this blog I review the recent conversations on legal identity for all and the direction of travel when it comes to solutions. Is digital identity the answer to universal individual legal identity? Or do we need to be pragmatic about what is realistic for many of those 1.1 billion excluded?
Unsettled Status – The CJEU’s judgment in Bilali C-720/17 on statelessness and subsidiary protection
I wrote about the opinion of the Advocate General in this case earlier this year. In this blog I consider the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Bilali v Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl C-720/17. The decision of the CJEU is that subsidiary protection could be revoked even though the mistake …
In this blog I take a closer look at the issue of legal identity and birth registration for a particularly vulnerable group of children – child soldiers. At times of conflict, when children are at risk of human rights violations, and, in some places, at risk of being recruited or used in hostilities, legal identity and birth registration becomes even …
“The people of the earth have thus entered in varying degrees into a universal community, and it has developed to the point where a violation of rights in one part of the world is felt everywhere. The idea of a cosmopolitan right is therefore not fantastic and overstrained; it is a necessary complement to the unwritten code of political and …
