FG unveils national action plan to end statelessness

The federal government has unveiled its national action plan to end statelessness.

A stateless person, according to the United Nations, is one “who does not have the nationality of any country”.

As part of efforts to address statelessness, the UN launched the ‘I Belong’ campaign in 2014, with the target of ending statelessness by 2024.

In a statement, Nneka Anibeze, spokesperson of the ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, said the national action plan was unveiled on Friday in Abuja.

The ministry also said it worked in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ministry of interior, and other stakeholders, to inaugurate a “high level steering committee” to oversee the implementation of the action plan.

According to the statement, Sadiya Umar Farouq, minister of humanitarian affairs, said the action plan will provide a framework for the tackling statelessness in the country.

“A person can become stateless as a result of a myriad of reasons, including lack of birth registrations, discrimination against minority groups on the basis of ethnicity, gender or religion, gaps in nationality laws, and transfers of territory between existing states, which can exclude people and make them at risk of statelessness,” she was quoted as saying.

“Persons who are at risk of statelessness include refugees, migrants, children whose births were not registered, normadic pastoralists and populations affected by border changes.

“The National Action Plan is designed to resolve existing situations of statelessness, prevent new cases of statelessness from emerging and protect stateless persons in Nigeria, in line with the global best practices in the eradication of statelessness highlighted in this paper.

“Realising the devastating impact of statelessness and the importance of addressing it to ensure protection and fulfillment of human rights of stateless persons, the UN General Assembly, by a resolution, mandated the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to lead global efforts to end statelessness by supporting states in the identification, prevention, reduction and protection of stateless persons, with the overall view of preventing and ending statelessness.

“On this premise, the UNHCR launched the ‘I Belong’ campaign’ and in consultation with states, developed the UNHCR Global Action Plan (Global Action Plan) to end statelessness, which serves as a global road map for states to help end statelessness.”

The ministry also said Nigeria joins other member states, including Burkina Faso, Gambia, Benin Republic, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Togo, which have rolled out national action plans to end statelessness.

Among persons who attended the unveiling of the action plan were Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior; Pauline Tallen, minister of women affairs; Chansa Kapaya, country representative, UNHCR; Grema Ali Alhaja, representative of the permanent secretary, ministry of humanitarian affairs; and Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary, ministry of interior.