Topic: Rights of Stateless Persons
Country: Switzerland
Delegate Name: Cameron Holtman
School: Kalamazoo Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Switzerland position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
The rights of stateless people has been a major problem in our world today. A stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law (article 1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons). Here, nationality refers to the legal bond between a person and a state. This bond can best be seen as a form of official membership which confers upon the national certain rights (like the right to live in the country or participate in elections) as well as duties (like the duty of military service, where this is still in place). A person who is stateless lacks this membership and will be seen and treated as a foreigner by every country in the world. This phenomenon has also been described as “de jure statelessness”.
Switzerland believes 8,800 undocumented people live in our great country. 2,020 of them are in fact stateless. Switzerland believes that there should not be a major push to help these stateless people become citizens in our country. We think this because those people just want to take our jobs and take a little piece of country away from us. This is not good at all. Switzerland could let a couple of stateless people in but they would be carefully regulated and won't get the same benefits as our normal citizens. In all respects we agree with the USA’s stateless persons ideals. Only take a few and these people must follow every rule we give them. Switzerland completely think that any other country can take these stateless people.
