Topic: Rights of Stateless Persons
Country: Guatemala
Delegate Name: Sara Vargo
School: East Grand Rapids High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Guatemala position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
There are over 10 million stateless persons in the world who, by definition, do not belong to any nation. This situation can be brought on by a number of possibilities including war, discrimination, and transfers of territory between States. One can be born stateless or become stateless, but the consequences are the same either way. A stateless person can’t go to school, have a job, get married, buy a house, or seek professional medical attention because they do not have the documentation to do so. This issue is important because it directly defies the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality nor denied the right to change his or her nationality.”
In Guatemala, one can become a citizen by being born in the country, having one parent with citizenship, or by methods of naturalization. However, dual citizenship is unrecognized and Guatemalan citizenship can be lost if one acquires citizenship of another country. The majority of refugees in Guatemala are IDPs, or internally displaced persons, with around 251,000 displaced Mayans and peasants that resulted from internal conflict. Guatemala was in attendance of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and was one of the 89 parties who signed and ratified it.
The most influential United Nations proposal regarding stateless persons was the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons which outlined that everyone has a right to a nationality, and what those stateless persons’ rights are. The persons should be treated with the same amount of respect and fairness that other aliens are, without discrimination. 89 countries signed and ratified this Convention. In 1961, the United Nations proposed the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness to help otherwise stateless people fit into a nationality.
Guatemala believes that the rights of stateless persons should be given as much attention as the rights of refugees. Hopefully, eventually all countries will ratify these Conventions in order to protect stateless persons residing in their borders.
