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Stateless Children

Stateless Children. Youth Advocate Program International 4000 Albermarle St. NW, Suite 401, Washington DC 20016, USA www.yapi.org. Stateless Children What do you know?. What does it mean if a person is Stateless?

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Stateless Children

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  1. Stateless Children Youth Advocate Program International 4000 Albermarle St. NW, Suite 401, Washington DC 20016, USA www.yapi.org

  2. Stateless ChildrenWhat do you know? • 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?

  3. Stateless ChildrenWho is a stateless 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: http://www.unhcr.org/4c11f0be9.html

  4. Stateless ChildrenWhy are children Stateless? • 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)

  5. Stateless ChildrenWhy are children Stateless? • 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) http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://

  6. Stateless ChildrenHow many children are Stateless? • 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: http://www.unhcr.org/4c11f0be9.html

  7. Stateless Children Source: http://www.nationalityforall.org/children-in-sabah-malaysia

  8. Stateless ChildrenWhere are they found? • Refugees International found that there are over 300,000 denationalized Kurds in Syria • 80,000-140,000 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: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/get-involved/helpful-facts-%2526-figures#stateless Source: UNICEF Birth Registration: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_birthregistration.html

  9. Stateless ChildrenHow are they impacted? • Stateless children may be denied: • Healthcare • Education • Access to justice • Safety and Well-being • Residence and travel • Voting rights • Employment • A passport http://www.soros.org/indepth/stateless/what_it_means.html 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: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_birthregistration.html

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

  11. Stateless ChildrenFor more information: • Human Rights Watch: Refugee, Immigrant, and Stateless Children http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k1/children/child3.html • PLAN International http://plan-international.org/ • UNICEF: Birth Registration • http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_birthregistration.html • Youth Advocate Program International http://www.yapi.org

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