ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

117.  Adopt  all  necessary  measures  to  ensure  that  stateless  persons  whose  asylum claims  are  refused  and  refugees  with  adverse  security  or  character  assessments are not held in detention indefinitely, including by resorting to non-custodial alternatives to detention.  

117.  Adopt  all  necessary  measures  to  ensure  that  stateless  persons  whose  asylum claims  are  refused  and  refugees  with  adverse  security  or  character  assessments are not held in detention indefinitely, including by resorting to non-custodial alternatives to detention.  

5. (...) Kuwait is home to a stateless population of 93,000 persons known as “bidoons”, who fall into three broad categories: (a) those whose ancestors failed to apply for nationality or lacked the necessary documentation when Kuwait gained independence in 1961; (b) those recruited to work in the Kuwaiti army or police force during the 1960s, who settled permanently in Kuwait, along with their families; and (c) children of Kuwaiti mothers and stateless or foreign fathers.

24. Refugees and stateless persons are also at risk of trafficking in persons. They are affected by the absence of specific frameworks and considerations of their circumstances, as well as the current immigration policies. 

86.  On the basis of the above findings, and in a spirit of cooperation and dialogue, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to Kuwait: 

(a)  Ratify without delay [...] the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness [...].  

87.  With regard to the national framework: 

(b)  Enforce labour regulations in order to provide greater protection to migrant workers, including domestic workers, as well as refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons (bidoons) seeking employment, in accordance with international legal standards.

88. With regard to identification, training and capacity-building: 

(a)  Urgently establish standard operating procedures for the identification of all forms of trafficking and referral of victims, defining indicators to look out for while screening  vulnerable persons, including Kuwaitis, undocumented migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons.

91.  With regard to prevention: 

(d) Consider opening up the labour market to refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in order to prevent the labour and sexual exploitation of those vulnerable groups.  

47.  Although Argentina recognizes a certain number of indigenous communities, the Nivaclé claim that they have been denied recognition and therefore cannot have access to national identification cards, which in turn keeps them from gaining access to public services in the province of Formosa. 

104. The Special Rapporteur understands that Nivaclés are a people also present in Paraguay, bordering the province of Formosa, and suggests that the State further investigate the claims of the Nivaclé in Argentina in an effort to prevent statelessness. 

40. The State party should continue its efforts to ensure birth registration of all persons on its territory, particularly the Roma people, and to tackle de facto discrimination of the Roma through practical measures, programmes, incentives and awareness-raising initiatives to ensure full enjoyment of all their rights under the Covenant.

15. The State party should increase its efforts to:

(...)

(b) facilitate and enable registration of children born to parents without identification documents and allow internally displaced Roma who live in informal settlements to register their place of residence and to acquire identification documents, including by reviewing the law on permanent and temporary residence;

(...)

12. The Special Rapporteur and her predecessors have previously highlighted that the Citizenship Law (1982) is not in line with international standards (see A/69/398, paras. 12 and 53, and A/HRC/25/64, paras. 49 and 83 (f)), particularly regarding discriminatory provisions for granting of citizenship on the basis of ethnicity or race. (...)

15. The Special Rapporteur has already noted that many are sceptical of the citizenship verification exercise. Between June 2015 and December 2016, just over 600 identity cards for national verification were issued in Rakhine State compared to almost 26,000 elsewhere. Reasons for that include the lack of consultation with affected communities resulting in their lack of understanding of the process and the continued limitations on the exercise of rights by citizens recognized through the process. Consequently, most Rohingya and other non-citizen minorities rely on the compulsory household list as the only current evidence of legal residence in Myanmar.

16. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned by reports of Rohingya and others being coerced into applying for identity cards for national verification. (...)

33. Birth registration is important for combating child labour and to ensure access to vital services. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the first electronic platform for birth registration and efforts to expand registration. However, she notes that registration is alarmingly low for Muslims in Rakhine State and in some conflict-affected areas of Kachin and Shan States. She encourages increased efforts to improve birth registration in those areas, especially given the additional vulnerabilities frequently faced by children there. In non-government controlled areas in Kachin, civil documentation issued by ethnic armed groups is not officially recognized, causing difficulty for children with such documents to enrol in government schools.

90. Regarding the rule of law and democratic space, the Government should: (...)

(c) Review and amend the Citizenship Law (1982) to bring it into line with international standards. In particular, remove provisions that provide for the granting of citizenship on the basis of ethnicity or race;

(d) Resolve the legal status of habitual residents of Myanmar, including former holders of the temporary registration card, and ensure that they have equal access to citizenship through a non-discriminatory and voluntary process;

18. Taking into account the adoption of decree No. 18 of the Minister of Justice of Georgia on approval of the rule on the registration of civil acts in January 2012 and officials going door-to-door to establish identification documents, the Committee, taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals on providing legal identity for all, including birth registration, recommends that the State party:

(a) Set a realistic timeline for effective birth registration throughout the country and address administrative obstacles, with special attention paid to minority groups, refugees, stateless persons and families living in high mountain areas;

(b) Continue and strengthen ongoing efforts to establish institutional structures, such as mobile registration centres, in line with the Committee’s previous concluding observations (see CRC/C/GEO/CO/3, para. 28), in order to attain equal rates of birth registration for minority groups;

(c) Seek technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF, among others, for the implementation of these recommendations. 

19. Noting the regulation of birth registration of children born in Georgia through surrogacy under article 19 of decree No. 18 of the Minister of Justice on approval of the rule on the registration of civil acts, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Address possible obstacles to the implementation of the decree, especially with regard to international surrogacy arrangements; 

(b) Ensure that a child born through surrogacy motherhood will be able to get access to the information about his or her origin;

(c) Amend the law on the legal status of aliens and stateless persons to fully comply with the provisions of the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons;

(d) Establish an effective and efficient identification and referral mechanism for children who are undocumented and at risk of statelessness;

(e) Accede to the 1997 European Convention on Nationality and the 2006 Council of Europe Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to State succession. 

37. Taking into account the ongoing reform of the State party’s national refugee legislation and in line with its general comment No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(...)

(b) Allocate sufficient human, technical and financial resources for the implementation of the migration strategy and action plan for the period 2016-2020 to facilitate local integration of refugee and asylum-seeking children and their access to naturalization; 

12. (...) (d) Put an end to the withdrawal of Jordanian nationality from refugees of Palestinian origin residing in the State party.

39. (...) The Committee remains concerned, however, that, under the Act, Jordanian women are not entitled to pass their nationality on to their foreign spouses and their children. It is further concerned that the decision taken by the State party in 2014 to grant children of Jordanian mothers (who have resided in the country for a minimum of five years) and foreign fathers some “privileges” (mazaya) in areas such as education, health, work, property ownership and investment has not yet been published nor fully implemented

40. The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Review the Nationality Act, while taking into consideration practices of other States parties from the region that have successfully amended their nationality laws, to ensure equality between women and men with regard to the acquisition, change and retention of nationality and to enable Jordanian women to pass their nationality on to their foreign spouses and their mutual children;
(b) Ensure that the “privileges” (mazaya) approved by the Cabinet in 2014 are implemented without delay and that government agencies comply with that decision, including by making it accessible in the Official Gazette;
(c) Consider lifting the five year residence requirement for mothers in order to increase the number of children eligible for such services.

25. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals on providing legal identity for all, including birth registration, the Committee urges the State party to:

(a) Fast track the naturalization of children with undetermined citizenship in the age category of 15 to 18 years;

(b) Establish a statelessness determination procedure to determine whether individuals who arrive in the State party in a migratory context are stateless;

(c) Further strengthen technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), among others, for the implementation of these recommendations.