CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

VERONIKA D’EVEREUX allow children born in the territory to acquire nationality (principle ius soli ); political changes resulting into transfer of the territory (succession of the states) which have an impact on altering the nationality status of the citizens of the predecessor state; 26 administrative oversights, procedural problems, conflicts of law between two countries, or destruction of official records; change of the citizenship during marriage or the dissolution of marriage between couples from different countries; targeted discrimination against minorities; legal restrictions in regard to the acquisition of citizenship; legal restrictions due to which women are not permitted to confer their nationality to their children; legal rules in regard to children born out of wedlock and during transit; and loss or relinquishment of nationality without first acquiring another. Stateless persons are often denied wide range of rights, including some fundamental human rights. They are unable to obtain proper identity documents, they do not have access to education, health services, or the labour market. 27 2.1 The UNHCR effort to end statelessness by the end of 2024 The above-mentioned situations affecting millions of persons worldwide became a reason for the UNHCR to launch the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014–2024, the objectives of which are resolving existing major situations of statelessness, preventing new cases of statelessness from emerging, and improving the identification and protection of stateless persons. This plan is structured into 10 sections which are aimed at ending statelessness, the goal is meant to be accomplished in 2024. This strategy is only aimed at resolving non-refugee statelessness situations . It is focused on preventing further cases of statelessness which is supposed to be carried out by ensuring that no child is born stateless. States should adopt legal rules based on which (otherwise stateless) children born or found in their territory are granted the nationality of this state. States should also safeguard in their domestic laws the ability to grant nationality to children born to their nationals abroad (in case the children are unable to acquire another nationality, e.g., the nationality of the state of their birth). States should ensure that their nationality laws treat women and men equally in regard to the conferral of nationality to their children and with regard to the acquisition, change, and retention of citizenship. States should not have any laws which permit denial, loss, or deprivation of nationality on discriminatory grounds. Future cases of statelessness due to the succession should be prevented. States should identify stateless migrants through determination procedures leading to legalising their residence, guaranteeing the enjoyment of basic human rights, and facilitating the naturalisation. There should not occur any further unreported cases of statelessness due to the lack of birth registration. States should not have any inhabitants entitled to nationality, but who cannot acquire documentary proof of their nationality. The aim is to increase the number of parties to the 1954 Convention to 140 states and the 1961 Convention to 130 states. The last area which is planned to be accomplish by the end of 2024 is aimed at improving quantitative and qualitative data on stateless population. 28 This 10-year campaign emphasises that statelessness is a man-made problem, and it occurs because of bewildering array of causes. Due to political reasons, the domestic laws of 26 JANKUV, J. LANTAJOVÁ, D., ŠMID, M., BLAŠKOVIČ, K. Medzinárodné právo verejné, Prvá časť. [Public International Law, vol. 1] Plzeň: Vydavatelství a nakladatelství Aleš Čeněk s. r. o. 2015, pp. 91–95. 27 UNHCR. Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2014-2024. [online] [accessed on 19 May 2024] Available at: https://tinyurl.com/mu7dx8nm. 28 Ibidem.

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