Topic: Rights of Stateless Persons
Country: Russia
Delegate Name: Benjamin Centner
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Russia position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
The right to self-actualize, the right to liberty, and the right to freedom of movement are inherited simply by being human. It is the government’s purpose to protect and build upon these rights. Stateless people lack this God given birthright. An individual may become stateless through war, territorial disputes, or discrimination. Stateless people are deprived of basic education, healthcare, and oftentimes proper diet. In 1954 the United Nations recognized this as a major concern by forming the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. In 2015 the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that a child is born into statelessness every ten minutes. Palestine is one of the largest examples of a stateless population. There is an estimated 3.5 million stateless palestinians. Only 136 member states of the UN recognize the state of Palestine. The Russian Federation is among those. It is an injustice to fundamental morality that countries such as the United States of America do not recognize Palestine as a nation. The conflict in Syria has created a complete humanitarian crisis. According to the UN over 1.5 million refugees have left Syria alone. A whole generation of Syrian children are at risk to become stateless due to the western world’s political policies. This holocaust must be dealt with by eliminating the terrorist cells inside Syria. However, the Russian Federation’s military involvement is not enough. Europe needs to become aware that the political policies of the United States are a hinderance. The United States has no consideration for the “historical, religious, national, cultural features of these regions” (Putin). An “international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism” (Putin) must be formed in order to prevent putting more people at risk for statelessness. The Russian Federation calls the members of the United Nations to higher their standards and improve their protection of stateless people.
The Russian government has taken the necessary steps in order to work towards the abolishment of stateless persons through a series of domestic and international policies. The Kremlin has already allocated over 270 million dollars to help refugees settle in Russia. A record breaking one million refugees have already found haven in the Russian Federation from Ukraine alone. President Putin has signed in a multitude of laws in order to simplify the process of gaining residence permits as a stateless person. When one obtains a residence permit he or she is allocated generous housing by the government and allowed to take loans. The Russian Federation has fully supported Palestine in an effort to create stronger “peace initiatives, including within the UN framework” (Putin). The United States and Israel have attempted to disrupt these “peace initiatives” by voting against resolution 67/19. This action shows that the United States has little sympathy towards the nationless. The president of Palestine admits that the “key for peace lies in Israel ending its occupation,” (Abbas) of Palestine; this cannot be achieved without significant improvements in the United Nation’s policy towards stateless persons.
What steps must the United Nations take in order to end widespread statelessness? Primarily, we need to end the blind prejudice and selfishness that has impacted past decisions. This issue is much larger in scope than any individual country’s trivial desires. The members of the UN must come together in order to help the 10 million people that are suffering from a lack of inalienable rights. The members of the UN must come together in order to enforce a nation’s obligations towards the stateless persons. The members of the UN must come together in order to simplify a stateless person’s path to citizenship. Ultimately, the members of the UN must unite in order to put an end to one of the greatest humanitarian blunders of the 21st century.
