“What are the implications for national and international security of allowing terror suspects to be loose and undocumented in whatever country they happen to be in when their citizenship is revoked?…There are many unanswered questions” Baroness Smith of Basildon, Parliamentary debate in the UK House of Lords, 17 March 2014 Citizenship-stripping of ISIS and former ISIS fighters stops them from …
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 …
Season’s Greetings! This blog will take a short break over the festive period, returning in January for more on legal identity, belonging, citizenship and statelessness. For those celebrating Christmas and New Year this month – enjoy the holidays. If, like me, you are travelling this holiday season – for pleasure or to join friends and family – spare a thought …
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?
My recent analysis of the CJEU’s judgment in Bilali C-720/17 on statelessness and subsidiary protection is making a guest appearance on the excellent and informative blog by the European Network on Statelessness. The European Network on Statelessness is the collaboration of non-governmental organisations, academic initiatives, and individual experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe. As well as its weekly blog, …
I have written before about discriminatory nationality laws, specifically in relation to Nepal. But Nepal is not the only country with this problem. There are 25 countries in the world which still have discriminatory nationality laws. Among them are Brunei, Kuwait, eSwatini, Liberia, the Bahamas, Barbados and Iran. Iran has recently been in the news for proposals which are set …
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 an earlier blog I considered some of the countries which had not yet acceded to the two Statelessness Conventions and which had no formal protective framework to avoid, reduce or mitigate the effects of statelessness. People are stateless or become stateless for many different reasons. What they have in common, wherever they are in the world, is the effect …
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 …
