UN vows to end scourge of statelessness
Ten million people have no nationality, limiting access to education, medical care and travel

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
The United Nations has launched a global campaign which aims to end the plight of statelessness within ten years.
People born without nationality are often deprived of education and medical care, and they may not be allowed to travel.
In some cases citizenship may be denied to specific ethnic groups within a country, the BBC reports, and in other cases people may slip between bureaucratic cracks.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Children born in refugee camps often have no entitlement to the nationality of the new country they are born in," it says, "and no chance of returning to the country of their parents to claim nationality there."
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is marking the 60th anniversary of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons with a series of events designed to "highlight the human face of statelessness" and persuade countries to grant nationality to all their stateless people.
What is the 1954 Convention?
This was the UN's first attempt at solving the problem of statelessness. It is a list of recommendations first prepared by the UN Economic and Social Council after the Second World War, and according to a report published by the UNHCR in 2003, it remains "the primary international instrument adopted to date to regulate and improve the legal status of stateless persons and to ensure to them fundamental rights and freedoms without discrimination".
What will the UNHCR do to end statelessness now?
The UNHCR said it will establish a "series of dialogues with stateless people to better understand the impact of statelessness" and then "bring together policymakers, international organizations, NGOs and academics to discuss new research and policy perspectives to tackle some of the most pressing statelessness situations around the world".
The BBC reports that refugees' rights groups say that too little progress has been made on the issue.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Biden's first rodeo
cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
Biden's stumble
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
The daily gossip: Travis Kelce chats about Taylor Swift's Chiefs game visit, Hollywood writers thrilled with details of new contract as strike ends, and more
The daily gossip: September 27, 2023
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
Drug could allow you to 'grow new teeth'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Woman reunited with egg she signed in 1951
It Wasn't All Bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 16, 2023
Daily Briefing Ripple effects seen throughout auto industry as UAW strikes, Lee expected to bring flooding and storm winds to New England, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
American rescued after 12 days in Turkish cave
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
What Mexico’s first female president might mean for the ‘femicide nation’
feature The Latin American country is grappling with misogynist crime amid a backdrop of progress for women in politics
By Rebekah Evans Published
-
Ukrainian military has ‘shown how the Russian army can be beaten’
Talking Point Recent Ukrainian frontline advances may offer hope for its counter-offensive
By The Week Staff Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Protests in Syria: could they bring down the Assad regime?
Talking Point Threat to power grows amid poverty, inflation and ‘botched’ response to earthquake
By The Week Staff Published