Why the Convention on Statelessness Matters | Open Society Foundations Blog - OSF

Why the Convention on Statelessness Matters | Open Society Foundations Blog - OSF



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Today the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness turns 50. A happy occasion? In many ways, yes. The 1961 convention provides a blueprint for the reduction—possibly the elimination—of statelessness globally. It's one effort by the international community to help the more than 12 million people around the world who have no nationality anywhere. Most of them live in the shadows, with little or no access to education, health care, social services, or employment. Many are unable to move freely because they lack of identity documents, which also leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.



But despite its 50-year history, the convention has only been ratified by 38 states—yes, that’s an average of less than one ratification per year. So why should we care about the convention when so few states have signed on?



Because it’s the best international tool we have to address what is inevitably an international problem. Statelessness is not something that one country can resolve on its own. Establishing that a person is stateless, for example, necessarily requires states to collaborate to ensure the person is not a national of another state. The 1961 convention is the only global instrument that establishes some kind of framework for such collaboration.



And while parts of the convention are outdated, it does provide a clear guide for states with respect to policies that ought to be adopted to minimize occurrence of statelessness among children. Not only do many nationality laws around the world lack such guarantees, but a great benefit of more countries acceding to the convention is that states parties would apply the same rules, minimizing the risk of creating gaps.



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