Tag Archives: children

SDG16.9 – The vital link between legal identity and statelessness?

SDGs legal identity statelessness

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 …

The time is now: what progress on repealing discriminatory nationality laws?

discriminatory nationality laws

In this blog I come back to the issue of discriminatory nationality laws as they affect women and their children, causing an increased risk of statelessness. I wrote previously about the impact of such laws in Nepal and Iran, although they are not the only states who still have discriminatory nationality laws.  There has been some progress recently in states …

Love thy neighbour (and legalise their status) – Colombia and its approach to migrants from Venezuela

Colombia migrants Venezuela

Colombia was recently praised for recognising what should be obvious: the arrival, over the last couple of years, of some 1.5 million migrants and refugees from its neighbour Venezuela might be Venezuela’s loss, but it is Colombia’s gain.  Colombia chose to maximise the benefits it will gain from the new arrivals by giving legal status to Venezuelan migrants and refugees.  …

Zhao v Netherlands – The importance of having a statelessness determination procedure is clear, so why is the Netherlands still in denial?

Zhao v Netherlands

In this blog I consider the recent decision of the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in the case of a young boy living in the Netherlands, Denny Zhao.  Zhao is registered as of ‘nationality unknown’ rather than stateless. Under current Dutch law and procedure he has no prospect of finding protection as a stateless person, becoming a Dutch citizen, or …

Undocumented does not mean illegal – an update on stateless communities in Sabah and Sarawak

Sabah and Sarawak

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 …

Using the touchless to find the invisible – legal identity, biometrics and Covid-19

Touchless invisible - legal identity biometrics

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 …

A Civic Death – citizenship-stripping of Foreign Terrorist Fighters

Citizenship-stripping

“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 …

Iran takes steps to make its nationality law less discriminatory

Irans nationality law

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 …

Pro patria mori – child soldiers and legal identity

Child Soldiers

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 …

It’s cold out there – Non-parties to the Statelessness Conventions

Non-parties

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency describes the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness as “The key international conventions addressing statelessness. They are complemented by international human rights treaties and provisions relevant to the right to a nationality”. But still there are many states that are non-parties and have …