Topic: Rights of Stateless Persons
Country: Rwanda
Delegate Name: Tina Nguyen
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Rwanda position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Stateless people are those who are not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law. According to UNHCR, they have estimated that there are over 10 million stateless persons in the world. Statelessness usually appear in the regions of Asia and Africa. These people, deprived of basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement, are from countries with nonfunctional governments or social unrest. They are also more likely to encounter travel restrictions, social exclusion, exploitation, trafficking in persons, forcible displacement, and other abuses. They have no country to call their own and are forced to stay in foreign countries, where the natives are most likely not welcoming. With no government protecting them, these people are the most vulnerable. Over the past couple years, there has been an increase in statelessness due to flaws of government systems. Statelessness can fall upon people who face discrimination due to religion or race. Sometimes it could be due to the emergence of new States and transfers of territory between existing States. The most common reason for statelessness is gaps in nationality laws. The easiest answer for most governments is to ignore their existence. It's easy to forget about people who aren’t in any system. However, as we become more globalize, we have to fix the old problem that still occurs today. Stateless people are potential assets that could impact in the world. The question now is whether we are willing to tap into that source or not.
As part of the UNHCR, the Republic of Rwanda has been hosting displaced people, mainly Congolese, in five sites located in Gihembe, Kigeme, Kiziba, Nkamira and Nyabiheke for a long time. Rwanda has not directly improved on the lives of stateless people. However, we have indirectly improved statelessness by providing camps for them and trying to help them get back on their feet. Due to government corruption and human rights neglection, recently, an increased amount of Burundians have been fleeing to neighboring countries. According to UNHCR, there is an estimation of 338,179 Burundians refugee in total and 25.2% are taken in by Rwanda. Rwanda is not a rich country, but still willing to offer assistance to displaced people. There are many non-government organizations that have contributed to assisting. Some examples are Africa Humanitarian Action, CARE International, Rwanda Red Cross, and Salvation Army. They help by providing supplies like food or clothes. Rwanda has great intentions of trying to help with the situation, however, our locations are still lacking in resources and security which causes the asylum seekers to suffer. There are numerous cases of bride kidnappings and insufficient food and water supply. Additionally, length of the registrations and the quality of decision-making are making the entire procedure insufficient. Delays in birth registration, particularly in refugee camp locations, are causing these children to be considered stateless and with limited or no rights at all. In efforts to improve displaced people’s lives, Rwanda have tried building more buildings when the camps were overcrowded. They have tried creating economies within the asylum community so they would have jobs and earn money. Rwanda finds it important to provide assistance, but at the same time Rwandans want to help them get back on their feet as soon as possible so Rwanda can create more space for newcomers. However, these camps face challenges that make their goals impossible to achieve.
What are the solutions to statelessness? The most efficient solutions are management of current stateless camps through more effective registration and prevention of statelessness through closing nationality gaps. During the UNHCR ministerial meeting in 2011, Rwanda proposed pledges to improve on the issue of statelessness. Rwanda made a pledge for civil documentation to prevent and reduce statelessness. Rwanda was also one of the few that made a pledge to a law reform to prevent and reduce statelessness. In the 2003 Constitution revised in 2015, it establishes presumption in favour of children of unknown parents. It is one of the African laws to provide explicitly for rights based on birth in Rwanda for otherwise stateless children. The law also allows for dual citizenship and protects persons who are Rwandan nationals by origin from being deprived of their nationality. With our current locations for stateless people, we would like to to provide a safer and faster process for stateless people by improving their access to camps and increasing their rights as stateless people. In order to start preventions, we need to improve on our efficiency in our systems. We, as delegates and human beings, have to make a decision now, because people’s lives are risk.
