2. Statelessness and the Refugee Crisis Today
©2019

3. Nuremberg Laws, 1935 From the Baltimore Sun

4. Rwanda
Fred Amram, Germany, 1936
Stateless refugee

5. The ultimate forgotten people
Stateless People
Non-persons
Unclaimed
Outcasts
Legal ghosts
The ultimate forgotten people /

6. 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UN Conventions
1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 15: Everyone has the right to a nationality.
Nobody shall be arbitrarily deprived of a nationality nor denied the right to change one’s nationality.
1954: UN Convention on the
Status of Stateless Persons
1961: UN Convention on the
Reduction of Statelessness /

7. Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
Mothers’ Rights
1979: UN Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
Article 9: Women shall have equal rights with men
with respect to the nationality of their children.

8. 1980: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Children’s Rights
1980: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

9. https://www. statelessness

10. More than 3,000,000

11. Stateless People in the World Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia
Dominican Republic
Iraq, Kuwait, Syria
Estonia, Latvia, Russia
Europe
Ivory Coast, Kenya
United States

13. Status
Stateless
person
Refugee

14. Stateless and a refugee: can’t go ‘home’ because nowhere is home
CANCELLED

15. The Challenge for Syrians
People fled who did not hold nationality.
300,000 children born in exile; unregistered
births without documentation.
Children born outside of Syria: nationality ONLY
through the father.
¼ of Syrian refugee households: no father present.

16. Statelessness
Without citizenship, children and adults are
blocked from
school
voting ID
property ownership
health care

17. Statelessness in Syria
Nationality law
Civil registration system
Documentation
Refugees: unregistered; undocumented
Child marriages: punishable offense
6. Unmarried parents

18. Consequences
1. Repatriation may be denied.
Integration into host country may be denied.
UK: specified ‘Syrian nationals.’

20. Solutions

21. UNHCR – increasing registration Waiving fees
Solutions
UNHCR – increasing registration
Waiving fees
Opening civil registration offices in refugee camps

23. Rwanda
Hoda Muthana and son
Shamima Begum and son

24. Register to vote. Vote. Support voting rights.
Our Actions
Register to vote. Vote. Support voting rights.
Raise awareness about statelessness.
#ibelong
End statelessness in the US
Create a path for a nationality
Sign 1954 and 1961 UN Conventions
Support refugee rights.

25. “Without a nationality, a person has no right to have rights.”
-Hannah Ahrendt
Rwanda

26. Re-naturalization, 2018

27. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
Rwanda
Fred Amram, Germany, 1936
Stateless refugee
Fred Amram, Minnesota, 2019
Naturalized citizen, US
Re-naturalized citizen, Germany
Everyone has the right to a nationality.

30. Fred Amram and Counsel General Herbert Quelle signing the re-naturalization papers