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On 2 December, I attended a launch in the European Parliament of the report “No Child should be Stateless” published by the European Network on Statelessness. The event was hosted by Member of the Parliament (MEP) Jean Lambert and co-organised by the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Children’s Rights.

The topic is very timely as unaccompanied refugee and migrant minors arriving in the European Union are particularly vulnerable to becoming stateless, and there are also cases of children being born to parents on the move who are at risk of becoming stateless. This is not only a global problem, but a European one that should be solved by the EU.

Ms Lambert introduced the issue of statelessness as an “imminently solvable problem”, since many countries have already found solutions to prevent statelessness, such as the establishment of birth registration systems. Nevertheless, statelessness remains a concern in Europe, where over 600,000 people are considered to be stateless today. Laura van Waas from the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion explained that, “it all goes back to Article 7 of the Convention on the Right of the Child”, the right to acquire a nationality.

Insufficient birth registration was named as one of the main roots of statelessness. Without having a birth certificate or any other proof of national identity, it is very difficult to access the right to nationality, even though the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, ratified by most Member States, says that, “a Contracting State shall grant its nationality to a person born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless.” Marc Dullaert from the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children questioned whether being stateless always means being right-less. Lilana Keith from our member PICUM called for caution, and clarified that the Convention ensures that, “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth […], without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” However, Ms Lambert pointed out that there is a “difference between having rights and accessing these rights”. Leaving people with “unknown nationality” instead of the status of statelessness hinders these people in accessing their rights. With the status “unknown nationality”, Member States bypass their duty to comply with the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention.

Jana Hainsworth, Secretary-General of our member Eurochild (and Social Platform’s President) stated that, “children’s voices need to be adequately heard and given attention to”, pointing to Eurochild’s 2016 event “Children’s Rights Matter: why Europe needs to invest in children” where children and young people will play a central role in deciding the topics for debate and discussion.

Pascal Schumacher, Counsellor at the Luxembourgish Permanent Representation to the EU, highlighted the incoherence of the EU expecting third countries to take actions on issues such as statelessness, while it remains a problem in Europe itself. First we need to resolve our own problems, before calling on countries outside the EU to act.

It is important to raise awareness about the issue of statelessness and to take action to solve it at European level.

See also the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) campaign on statelessness #ibelong and read the report on the event from Ms Lambert, as well as the Council Conclusions on Statelessness  from 7 December 2015.