Youth Advocate Program International 4000 Albermarle St. NW, Suite 401, Washington DC 20016, USA

 What does it mean if a person is Stateless?  What rights and responsibilities go along with citizenship and nationality?  Why is it important to have your birth registered?  Is a stateless child a homeless child?

 Stateless persons are individuals not considered as citizens of any State under national laws.  Many people do not have a nationality or citizenship because they lack official proof of birth. These individuals are denied rights associated with citizenship.  Unlike refugees, stateless persons in most countries are not registered or granted a legal status and documentation. Source: UNHCR 2009 Global Trends report:

 Parents may not be able to afford expensive birth registration fees  Families from rural areas may not be able to travel to registration centers in urban areas  Some countries rely on hospital records for registration, so children born in the home are not registered  Parents may not understand the importance of registering their child Source: Sarah Aird, Helen Harnett, Punam Shah, Stateless Children Youth Who Are Without Citizenship ( Washington DC : Master Print Inc. 2002)

 Some countries require evidence of ‘legitimacy’ for registration. An illegitimate child is considered a child born out of wedlock  Governments may refuse registration services to ethnic minorities who they consider undesirable Source: Sarah Aird, Helen Harnett, Punam Shah, Stateless Children Youth Who Are Without Citizenship ( Washington DC : Master Print Inc. 2002)

 There are as many as 12 million stateless people in the world  Children make up a significant portion of the stateless population and can face the worst forms of discrimination  The highest recorded number of stateless individuals are in Thailand  Myanmar, Nepal, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Iraq have extremely large stateless populations Source: UNHCR 2009 Global Trends report:

Source: sabah-malaysia

 Refugees International found that there are over 300,000 denationalized Kurds in Syria ◦ 80, ,000 stateless Bidoons in Kuwait ◦ 200,000+ stateless Rohingya in Bangladesh  South Asia has the largest number of unregistered births  66% of children under 5 in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have birth certificates Source: Refugees International: involved/helpful-facts-%2526-figures#stateless Source: UNICEF Birth Registration:

 Stateless children may be denied: ◦ Healthcare ◦ Education ◦ Access to justice ◦ Safety and Well-being ◦ Residence and travel ◦ Voting rights ◦ Employment ◦ A passport Registration of birth is the first legal acknowledgement of a child’s existence and grants children access to a number of fundamental rights. Source: UNICEF Birth Registration:

 Educate  Educate yourself about Stateless Children  Contact  Contact local, state, and national politicians for information about Stateless children ◦ Write letters asking for their opinion on Statelessness  Talk  Talk to your parents about Statelessness. ◦ Educate the adults in your life!  Advocate  Advocate for Stateless Children awareness! ◦ Begin a social awareness/human rights club

 Human Rights Watch: Refugee, Immigrant, and Stateless Children /wr2k1/children/child3.ht ml  PLAN International international.org/  UNICEF: Birth Registration otection/index_birthreg istration.html  Youth Advocate Program International