The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the sole piece of legislation agreed upon by all of the members of the United Nations, defines the rights that every person is entitled to. From the right to life to the right of defense by a State, the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) has “successfully” encapsulated all of the solutions necessary to ensure equality for all. But what if a person does not belong to a state? Statelessness is an ongoing epidemic. To be stateless is to be without citizenship. Without citizenship a child is left to live without legal access to privileges granted by a nation. In modern society, being born into a state is a right that has been grossly overlooked; children do not control the situations they are born into. It is a social injustice, which the new generation should not have to deal with.
According to UNICEF there are approximately 50 million births that go unregistered yearly. Roughly 40 percent of the entire child population is left powerless due to either complex political/religious battles or complications within bureaucracy, that prevent them from being acknowledged as citizens. (UNICEF, Children Fact Sheets) Without citizenship these children face an insurmountable amount of difficulties as they age, and attempt to become central figures in modern civilization. The lack of citizenship usually becomes a crucial issue for the wellbeing of a child. Most governments deny health care and publicly funded education without legal documentation of residency. Growing up as a stateless person can also later produce a challenging situation as an adult. Adults find themselves unable to marry, open bank accounts, or vote. Due to the lack of opportunities offered to stateless people, they tend to be forced into the outlaws of society. (Dow p.5)
The proof of birth is essential for any human being, but it serves a crucial role with the dealing of children. A birth certificate is the only legal form of protection for children. The United Nations promotes birth registration within a reasonable amount of time. When a child is not registered they become the “ideal” target for the modern-day slave trade. (Bueren p.118) Traffickers tend to target children without proper identification because they are susceptible to manipulation, and the legal system is unable to punish a trafficker if they cannot prove the age of the child. A minor who does not have proof of age is vulnerable to the legal system. If it is impossible to prove a child is under the age of 18, they are subsequently tried as adults. (second article)
Lacking in opportunities for the betterment of stateless people has caused a spike in the illegal market. For example stateless children do not have an automatic right to residence in a country. Subsequently, a family may live in constant fear of eviction or worse deportation. Consequently, families will spend unreasonable amounts of money for false forms of identification to try and ensure their family’s security.
“The Iraqi exile's family bought a false passport from a people smuggler in Syria for about $3000 and sent it to him in Port Hedland. The ACM official advised him to send it to a friend in Australia to get a Syrian visa, he says. Mathar's false passport shows he was deported from Perth in August 2000. At Abu Dhabi, a border guard spotted the passport as a fake because his name - which had been inserted - was in lower case when it should have been in capitals. Also, it lacked entry and exit stamps for Syria before he left for Australia.” (Jopson, Passport to a State of Limbo)
This excerpt serves as a perfect example of a stateless Iraqi family attempting to move to a new country after being exiled from their birth state. Due to the lack of official paperwork they relied on illegal measures to move their family into safety. The lack of measures to help integrate stateless people has caused the “black market” to become the first option for parents trying to protect stateless children.
Conceptually statelessness is the omission of a person’s basic birthrights because they are lacking the sovereignty that a state offers. If you then apply this extortion to the population of children the world is facing a major issue. The United Nations declares in the UDHR that no human being shall be without a nationality the idea that no human shall be without a nationality presents the question, “Why is there still a growing number of stateless people?” A logical solution would be found through providing these children born into statelessness with a form of citizenship. By omitting the idea of establishing more citizenships within the newer generation, we find ourselves further enhancing the conflicts we already face.
Since the logical solutions would be found in working through the problems dealt by the newer generation, The United Nations has established the Convention on the Rights of Children. This convention specifically declares that no child shall go unrecognized by their birth state. These states bound by the Convention on the Rights of Children to establish and secure citizenship for the families of these children. By instituting this law the United Nations plans on lowering the number of statelessness among adults while lowering the number among children.
Other methods are being utilized to help gain numbers in birth registration. The Peace Corps have begun a mobile unit of registrars that travel to villages and secluded towns around the world to promote the registration of children. There has also been a lot of research in establishing an online process to register a child’s birth, so that there can be less of a delay between the time of the birth and the time legal documents are issued. It has also been suggested that states should work together to assist countries that do not have an appropriate registration process. Pressure should be placed on countries that do not grant children citizenship for economical, social, and religious reasons. (Stateless Children Youth who are without citizenship. p23) It is in the best interest of all states to get involved in this movement for these are our future leaders of the world.
Works Cited
Aird, Sarah, Helen Harnett, and Punam Shah. "Stateless Children Youth Who Are Without Citizenship." Youth Advocate Program International (2002). Web.
"Futures Denied: Statelessness Among Infants, Children, and Youth | Refugees International." Home Page | Refugees International. 22 Oct. 2008. Web. 07 Sept. 2011.
Geraldine Van Bueren, The International Law on the Rights of the Child, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Kluwer Law International, 1998), 118.
Jopson, Debra. "Passport to a State of Limbo - Www.smh.com.au." Sydney Morning Herald - Business & World News Australia | Smh.com.au. 30 Sept. 2003. Web. 07 Sept. 2011.
UNICEF, Special Session on Children Fact Sheets, [article on-line]; available
from http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/press/fastfacts.htm; Internet; accessed
15 January 2002.
Unity Dow, “Birth Registration: The ‘first’ right,” The Progress of Nations 1998,
UNICEF, 5.
That last part about the UN's "Convention on the Rights of Children" is very interesting. What about children who are born into states without recognition? Places like Somaliland, Iraqi Kurdistan, or any of the other places we read about in "Limbo World." Do you know if the "Convention on the Rights of Children" protects those children as well?
ReplyDeleteI just found this article about migrant's children in Thailand that actually covers all aspects of their life in Thailand, that do not have any right. Honestly the history of the stateless boy made me cry.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Children-of-Migrants-in-Thailand-Get-Caught-Without-a-Country----112870424.html
And also I was reading an article in BBCrussian.com about situation in Somaliland. And it is said that their economy collapsed and there is too much unemployed people, but they are getting some money to survive from relatives who emigrated during the Civil War. But in 10-20 years it is not going to happen as new generation's connection with their homeland will weaken.
And last year I got involved in LiNK (Liberty in North Korea). They told us about awful position of children in North Korea, that have to hide, or do not now their parents. Even some of them were sent to China or South Korea as regular package. This organization helps people find asalym and we saw a video how peole of our age went through all process to be free. At least we know that someone can help them.
http://www.linkglobal.org/take-action/take-action/be-political.html
This article is about the same issue http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2009/0904/p08s01-wosc.html
And I found that there is one more organization that works on this problem - Plan International. It promotes children rights in developing countries. They do prettu huge work as well as helping children to get birth certificates. You can search more on this.
Oh, I found one more organization called YAPI International that pay more attention to children victimized by conflicts or state and personal violence.
ReplyDeleteThey have a good article on a given topic: http://www.yapi.org/stateless.html
I think statelessness is really causing a series of problems. Human trafficking and black markets for fake documents productions are getting intense as the population of stateless people are growing. I think in order to solve the problem completely, the political or religious problems within each country must be solved. In North Korea, dictatorship has raised the number of stateless children at the border between China and North Korea. they are all victims of the political problem. (http://www.nationalityforall.org/china)
ReplyDeleteUN is trying to lower the number of stateless children, I wonder how each country implements "Convention on the Rights of Children".
Hi JR,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the long pause before I answered your question, but you actually bring up a good question that I did not even think of. I did some research and found out that children born into states such as Somaliland are not necessarily protected by the Convention on the Rights of Children. Seen in this quote from a pdf of REALISING RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN, Harmonisation of Laws on Children Eastern and Southern Africa( http://hrbaportal.org/wp-content/files/1233116442_8_1_1_resfile.pdf)
"Every country in Africa, with the exception of Somalia, has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) thus committing themselves to the principle that the provisions of these treaties are respected and observed in law and practice."
Countries are not required to join the Convention and so it becomes difficult when dealing with the citizenship of these children. Ideally other Countries would pressure Somalia to join and recognize these children however it has yet to happen. There is some good news though, groups such as UNICEF are very aware of this situation and spend a lot of time speaking with governmental officials to try to change laws in order to establish a system for these children born into statelessness. UNICEF has been spending a lot of it's time and interest in developing schools for these stateless children. Being born without a citizenship means that there is no entitlement to an education, and since one of the major focal points of the Convention is spreading knowledge UNICEF plans on spreading this ideal far enough that Somalia will eventual come to accept the Convention.
If you are interested in more information on what UNICEF is involved in you can look at this link:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/somalia_41976.html
I hope this answered your question if you have anything else on your mind just post it and I will try to answer it the best I can.
Hi Victoria and Leshi,
ReplyDeleteI just read both of your responses and looked through the links that you have posted and they are all very touching and are further examples of why this issue needs to be solved. For example the parents in the Thailand article fear the lack of education their children will receive and this is a common thread seen through every issue of statelessness among children. These kids are not given an equal opportunity when it comes to schooling and this keeps our stateless children in the margins of society. We have always been taught as children that knowledge is power, and with it the opportunities of the world are placed at hand, so why is it we limit the only thing that can solve the problem of statelessness. If we educate these children they will become influential aspects of society and can promote the rate that citizenship is released. These issues are supposed to be solved by the Convention on the Rights of Children, however what most of us keep recognizing is that private organizations such as YAPI (mentioned by Victoria) are the only units truly working for a solution.
If you have any other comments please share them!
I find it very interesting how human trafficking finds its way into this issue. It's cruelly ingenious for human traffickers to target those children who are stateless, knowing that they have no protection under the law of their nation.
ReplyDeleteThrough this process, it seems that the states in which the trafficking is happening or the states in which trafficked people are being brought to not responsible for protecting the trafficked person, but rather for prosecuting the trafficker. While its good that a states try to prosecute human traffickers, the abused person is left when all is said and done. If their trafficker arrested, they are still stateless. They must then find a way to stay in the foreign country in which they have been left and find legal aid to seek asylum; an arduous process.
Stateless people who are trafficked find themselves in a position where they have been targeted because of their statelessness and then left without aid because of their inability to be protected under the laws of most countries without legal appeal.