Youth Advocate Program International
4000 Albermarle St. NW, Suite 401,
Washington DC 20016, USA
www.yapi.org
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?
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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
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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)
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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://
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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
Source: http://www.nationalityforall.org/children-insabah-malaysia
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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
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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/getinvolved/helpful-facts-%2526-figures#stateless
Source: UNICEF Birth Registration:
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_birthregistration.html
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Stateless children
may be denied:
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Healthcare
Education
Access to justice
Safety and Well-being
Residence and travel
http://www.soros.org/indepth/stateless/what_it_means.html
Voting rights
Registration of birth is the first legal
Employment
acknowledgement of a child’s existence
A passport
and grants children access to a number
of fundamental rights.
Source: UNICEF Birth Registration:
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_birthregistration.html
 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
Human Rights Watch:
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Refugee, Immigrant, and
Stateless Children
http://www.hrw.org/legacy
/wr2k1/children/child3.ht
ml
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PLAN International
http://planinternational.org/
UNICEF: Birth
Registration
http://www.unicef.org/pr
otection/index_birthreg
istration.html
Youth Advocate
Program
International
http://www.yapi.org