Stakeholders have agreed that no fewer than 10m people around the World are at risk of being stateless.
They resolved that better statistics would help governments and International organisations to improve data on the stateless population to address the causes of statelessness.
This was the submission of Stakeholders at the review of the Standard Operating Procedures on Statelessness, held in Abuja, Nigeria.
The Federal Commissioner of, the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim said the three-day event was put together to address issues around statelessness and also strengthen the instrument that the Commission has responsibility for within the National Action Plan for Statelessness determination in Nigeria.
He said; “We will be able to come up with a document that will be approved by The Federal Executive Council.
“In Nigeria, we’ve started the activities around birth registration, so we have a composition of mixed movement around our migration dynamics and with a lot of people at the risk of becoming stateless.”
“This National Action Plan and the review of the Standard Operating Procedures, SOP, will help in addressing those issues for people at the risk of becoming stateless,” Suleiman-Ibrahim explained.
Responding to Voice of Nigeria on areas to be considered for review, the Federal Commissioner said the meeting would look at peculiarities in every situation.
Suleiman-Ibrahim said; “This right is for Refugees and people that are displaced, we would like to consider their peculiarities. We must note when displacement happens, within these camps or settlements, children are being born.
“That’s why every stakeholder within that governance structure is here so that we all have a voice and then we come up with holistic documents that’ll be operationalised.”
The UNHCR said the review would be predicated upon the fifth Action Plan of the priority areas which calls for the protection of stateless persons and migrants.
“We are looking at a position whereby at the end of the three days, there are deliberations that will address the existing Government processes that’ll look into the identification of any stateless person in Nigeria.
Represented by the Senior Protection Officer, UNHCR, Mwihaki Kinyajui, the UNHCR Representative in Nigeria, Ms Chansa Kapaya said amongst other things that “consideration would be given to processes of identification and referral of stateless persons to the relevant agencies that’ll take the right action to ensure that their rights are protected.”
Statelessness is a global phenomenon whereby a person has not been recognised as a national of any State under the operation of its laws. It also means that a person does not belong to any country in the world.
The 1954 UN Convention relating to the status of stateless persons and the 1961 UN Convention on the reduction of Statelessness are key international treaties designed to ensure that every person has a nationality and that a stateless person enjoys a basic set of human right.
Nigeria is a signatory to the two Conventions and has ratified both.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
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