Topic: Rights of Stateless Persons
Country: Germany
Delegate Name: Maria Pacifico
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Germany position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
There are around 10 million stateless people all over the world, and there were about 12,569 stateless persons living in Germany in 2015. With the flood of new immigrants, there is bound to be more people who are stateless. In 2000, Germany passed a law that allowed foreigners to become citizens after 8 years of residency, but they have to follow certain conditions to achieve that citizenship. The issue is not only not being able to obtain residency, but what rights these people should have.
Germany has ratified multiple international treaties such as the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, but Germany does not recognize statelessness as a protection ground itself. However, they may still fall under some protection categories and resident permits.
Stateless people can receive toleration certificates in Germany. These certificates can grant them access to the labor market and resident permits. To receive this toleration certificate, stateless person’s deportation must be impossible due to legal and factual grounds. If the stateless persons have the right to stay, they also have a right to receive travel documents.
This committee has questioned how these stateless people will receive services they need, but also we must establish what these services are. Different nations maybe limited to services which they can provide. Should there be another better enforcement of the 1954 Convention treaty or a new comprehensive document? Germany believes that there should be more enforcement of the treaty but since there are only 89 parties to this treaty, there is something unsatisfactory to other nations.
We as a committee must come to together and compromise to create a resolution that satisfies our beliefs.
