IPU AND UNHCR LAUNCH A HANDBOOK ON STATELESS PEOPLE
Described as “the right to have rights”, nationality provides people with a legal identity and the protection of a State, which entails the enjoyment of basic civil, political, economic and social rights. Without a nationality, an individual may not have access to these rights. There are an estimated 11 million people in the world without a nationality.
A panel discussion on nationality and statelessness will be held on Tuesday, 18 October, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG), as part of the 113th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). A practical handbook for parliamentarians on nationality and statelessness, with suggested solutions and means of action, will be launched during the panel. The handbook has been published by the IPU and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a joint effort to draw attention to a phenomenon which adversely affects the lives of millions of men, women and children in the world, and to help seek solutions.
Speakers at the panel will include the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. António Guterres; the First Vice-President of the Chilean National Congress, Mr. Alejandro Navarro; the Director of the Innocenti Research Centre of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Ms. Marta Santo Pais, and Mr. Gerard-René de Groot, a professor at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 141 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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