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STORY: UN / STATELESSNESS GUTERRES
TRT: 02:44
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 NOVEMBER 2015, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
03 NOVEMBER 2015, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, presentation of UNHCR report “I am Here, I Belong. The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness”
3. Med shot, delegates during high-level discussion on the importance on the right to nationality
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
“The question of statelessness is not only a question of human rights; it is a question of the destruction of people, because the traumatic impact that people have in these circumstances is absolutely appalling.”
5. Med shot, delegates during discussion
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
“The risks, the enormous risks that children face in relation to recruitment, in relation to illegal child labour with horrible forms of exploitation, in relation to trafficking of human beings and sexual exploitation and abuse. I mean the vulnerability of these populations is very well described in this book, and I hope that this will help to mobile governments and mobilise civil society for the objectives that we have set, the most important of course, to eradicate statelessness in 10 years.”
7. Med shot, delegates during discussion
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
“This is the most forgotten human rights problem in the world most of the people are not aware that more than 10 million people in the world have not a country they can call theirs, they have no nationality, they have no documents, no papers, they do not exist legally. And I think it’s our obligation to do everything possible to overcome the situation.”
9. Med shot, UNHCR report “I am Here, I Belong. The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness”
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
“It’s absolutely essential that when protecting refugees, when protecting displaced people, everything is done to make sure that all children are granted a nationality.”
11. Pan right-to-left, pages from UNHCR report
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
“A lot has been happening and we see many governments taking measures to solve the problem of statelessness created by their own laws. Brazil has done, and solved the problem, Thailand is doing it, we have seen Bangladesh doing it. So we need to insist because sometimes there is ignorance or lack of knowledge about the problem. Unfortunately we have still a number of situations where statelessness is based on discrimination, on the fact that some communities are rejected and there, of course, international pressure is essential to make sure that those states recognise their own citizens.”
13. Med shot, UNHCR report
On the day of the release of a new report highlighting the plight of millions of stateless children, the UNHCR chief said the issue of loss of nationality remains “the most forgotten human rights problem in the world”.
According to UNHCR, stateless young people are often denied the opportunity to receive school qualifications, go to university and find a decent job. They face discrimination and harassment by authorities and are more vulnerable to exploitation. Their lack of nationality often sentences them and their families and communities to remain impoverished and marginalized for generations.
During a high-level meeting on the importance of the right to nationality in New York today (03 Nov), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the question of statelessness, and the traumatic impact it has on children affected by it, was “absolutely appalling.”
The UNHCR chief said stateless children across the world faced “enormous risks” in relation to “recruitment, to illegal child labour with horrible forms of exploitation, in relation to trafficking of human beings and sexual exploitation and abuse.”
He also said he hoped the new report – I am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness - released one year after the launch of UNHCR's #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024, would “mobile governments and mobilise civil society for the objectives that we have set, the most important of course, to eradicate statelessness in 10 years.”
The UNHCR chief, however, said that the issue of loss of nationality continued to remain “the most forgotten human rights problem in the world.
“Most of the people are not aware that more than 10 million people in the world have not a country they can call theirs, they have no nationality, they have no documents, no papers, they do not exist legally. And I think it’s our obligation to do everything possible to overcome the situation,” Guterres added.
When asked about the implication of statelessness for the thousands of children born to asylum seekers in Europe, Guterres said it was imperative that “everything is done to make sure that all children are granted a nationality.”
The UNHCR chief also said that while many governments had made concrete steps towards resolving the issue of statelessness in their own countries, others were lagging behind because of “ignorance or lack of knowledge.”
“Unfortunately we have still a number of situations where statelessness is based on discrimination, on the fact that some communities are rejected and there, of course, international pressure is essential to make sure that those states recognise their own citizens,” Guterres said.
