Bakhtiyor Navruz-Zoda, a tourism professor, speaks about his experience of being stateless
From 24 to 26 April 2022, the Central Asian Network on Statelessness (CANS), jointly with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), organized the 6th CANS Annual Meeting and the UNHCR Sub-Regional Consultations on Statelessness, to discuss current progress, opportunities, challenges, and strategic priorities to resolve statelessness in Central Asia by the end of the global #IBelong campaign in 2024.
The complementary events were held in Bukhara, Uzbekistan – the country which has made the most progress on statelessness reduction in Central Asia in recent years – bringing together CANS members, including national civil society organizations and academia, as well as Human Rights and Child Rights Ombudsperson Offices, UN agencies and other international organizations. The CANS annual meeting and the sub-regional consultations were aimed at forming the basis for building a lasting multi-stakeholder Alliance to End Statelessness.
“Today, with less than three years left until the end of the #IBelong campaign, we need to strategize and reflect on how we can intensify our individual and collective actions – if needed – to ensure that all States in Central Asia can achieve its ten goals by 2024. This includes how we can ensure that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will become State parties to and implement both statelessness conventions,” said Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Representative for Central Asia. “
A key topic on the agenda of the UNHCR Sub-Regional Consultations was the intersection between statelessness and development to achieve better, more tangible solutions for stateless populations. When thousands of people are stateless, the result is communities who are alienated and marginalized, with their development potential severely undermined. Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 calls for States to ensure that all persons have a legal identity, including birth registration, by 2030. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s overarching aim to “leave no one behind” cannot be realized unless all persons are recognized as full members of society.
Participants also discussed how to better include stateless and formerly stateless people in all initiatives that affect them. Former stateless persons from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan took part in the sub-regional consultations to talk about their experience of being stateless and what citizenship means to them.
Bakhtiyor Navruz-Zoda, a tourism professor at Bukhara State University and formerly stateless person, noted that while having almost the same access to basic rights and opportunities as citizens of Uzbekistan, he encountered a number of difficulties in pursuing his professional goals because he had had no nationality.
“I had problems with traveling. I was invited to professional conferences and seminars abroad, but many embassies did not issue a visa for me, as they did not recognize a stateless certificate,” said Professor Navruz-Zoda, whose statelessness was resolved in 2020, thanks to Uzbekistan’s new law on citizenship.
Story: Stateless no longer, a tourism professor dreams of future travel
By the end of the events, participants had outlined joint strategies for the remaining years of the #IBelong campaign, and provided recommendations for further sustainable development of CANS in its important role of eradicating and preventing statelessness in Central Asia.
For over a decade Central Asian States, supported by UNHCR and civil society partners, have made significant progress in reducing and preventing statelessness on their territories, however, to eradicate statelessness, all stakeholders need to redouble their efforts in the remaining years of the #IBelong campaign. As of December 2021, around 56,800 people were known to be stateless across Central Asia. With stateless people continuously identified, the true number is believed to be higher.
Infographic: Statelessness in Central Asia
Between 2022 and 2024, UNHCR and partners will continue supporting the efforts of Central Asian States to accede to the Statelessness Conventions, develop and strengthen dedicated statelessness determination procedures, and align national legislation and practices with international standards for prevention of statelessness.
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