UNHCR announces push to end statelessness worldwide by end-2024
Excerpts from Press Releases, 4 November 2014
UNHCR is today launching a global “I Belong” campaign aimed at ending within 10 years the problem of statelessness – a devastating legal limbo for the millions of people worldwide who lack any nationality and the human rights protections that go with it. The goal of eradicating statelessness is looking increasingly possible thanks to dramatic recent progress in the number of States acceding to two key UN human rights treaties.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and more than 20 celebrities and world opinion-leaders today published an Open Letter, saying that 60 years after the United Nations first agreed to protect stateless people, “now it’s time to end statelessness itself.”

At least ten million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every ten minutes. Not allowed a nationality, they are often denied the rights and services that countries normally offer their citizens.

“Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care or legal employment… a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects or hope,” the Open Letter said. “Statelessness is inhuman. We believe it is time to end this injustice.”…

…UNHCR’s campaign is being launched amid signs of a shift in international attitudes surrounding statelessness. Just three years ago, there were barely 100 States parties to the two statelessness treaties – the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Today the number of accessions stands at 144, bringing critical mass within reach…
UNHCR also released today a Special Report on Statelessness which highlights the human impact of the phenomenon, and a ten-point Global Action Plan to End Statelessness which aims both to resolve major existing crises and to ensure no child is born stateless in the future.

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4 November 2014
SG/SM/16313-HR/5225-REF/1204
‘It Is Time to End Statelessness’ Says Secretary-General, Calling for 10 Million Signatures Supporting United Nations Refugee Agency Campaign
Following is Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message in support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) campaign to end statelessness in 10 years, in Geneva today..

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UNHCR’s Open Letter to End Statelessness
[Full text; Text bolding as in original]
#IBELONG to a world where everyone has the right to a nationality.

Across the world today more than ten million people are told they don’t belong ANYWHERE.

They are called ‘stateless’. They are denied a nationality. And with it, they are denied their basic rights.

Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care, or legal employment.

It can mean a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects, or hope.

Statelessness is inhumane.

The main reason people are stateless is because of discrimination. Because of their ethnicity. Because of their religion. Because in some countries women cannot pass their nationality on to their children.

We believe it’s time to end this injustice.

With enough courage we know it is possible. Governments can change their laws and procedures, and give stateless people their rights and a place to belong.

Within ten years, we can ensure everyone has a nationality.

Because if we don’t this injustice will only get worse. A child is born stateless every ten minutes.

By the time you finish reading this letter another person may have started life without a nationality.

We are ready to make our voices heard. We believe that if we take a stand, others will join us. And if enough of us stand up we will end this inhumanity.

That is why UNHCR is launching the Campaign to End Statelessness in ten years.

Sixty years ago, the world agreed to protect stateless people. Now it’s time to end statelessness itself.