Topic: Rights of Stateless Persons
Country: Netherlands
Delegate Name: Sydney Toles
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Netherlands position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
The condition of statelessness affects 10 million people across the world- 3 million of these being children. A stateless child is born every 10 minutes according to the United Nations. In most cases these people have little to no rights because there is no government to protect them. These people do not have the right to vote, have a job, or get married. Not only are adults affected by being stateless children who are stateless also lose basic rights such as the right to be educated and the right to get medical treatment. Some people are deemed stateless within their country based on religion or race, some become stateless when the country they are living in becomes a part of another country, other stateless people are nomadic or gypsies that have no birth certificate. Research conducted by the UNHCR have showed that children who grow up stateless are more likely to get caught up in abusing illicit drug, It also shows that they have a higher chance to end up homeless and having permanent disenfranchisement.
The Netherlands does not apply the ius soli principle however they do apply the Jus Sanguinis principle which means if you are born in a family where at least one of the parents is Dutch you will be considered Dutch. If both of your parents are foreign you will take the nationality of one of them. In the Netherlands there are currently more than 4,000 documented stateless people (0.00023809523% of the population of the Netherlands). Statelessness has become a major problem in this world after the Syrian Refugee Crisis began in the early 2010’s. In the Netherlands there are over 50,000 Syrian refugees. Many of these Syrians are stateless.
Stateless people may make up only a small portion of the population of the Netherlands but their voices still deserved to be heard. Making laws to protect these citizens is extremely necessary. The Netherlands would like to pass a series of laws to protect the basics rights of a stateless person such as guaranteeing everyone the right to receive medical treatment and the right to education. In addition we should enact the jus soli principle. Everyone born on Netherland’s soil should be able to identify as a Dutch Citizen no matter their race or religion .
