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?

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

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)

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://

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-in-sabah-malaysia

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

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

EducateEducate yourself about Stateless Children

ContactContact local, state, and national politicians for information about Stateless children◦ Write letters asking for their opinion on Statelessness

TalkTalk to your parents about Statelessness.

◦ Educate the adults in your life!

AdvocateAdvocate for Stateless Children awareness! ◦ Begin a social awareness/human rights club

Human Rights Watch:Refugee, Immigrant, and

Stateless Childrenhttp://www.hrw.org/

legacy/wr2k1/children/child3.html

PLAN Internationalhttp://plan-

international.org/

UNICEF: Birth Registration

http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_birthregistration.html

Youth Advocate Program International

http://www.yapi.org