As a way of raising awareness on the relevance of Statelessness in Ghana and the region of West Africa, the UNHCR Representation in Ghana has organized a two day workshop on Statelessness bringing together key stakeholders including the Ministries of Justice, Interior, Foreign Affairs, the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Ghana Refugee Board, Civil Society and Academia to deliberate on the issue of Statelessness.
Stateless people are people without nationality; they are not considered as a national of any State under the operation of its law. Nationality is a legal bond between a person and a state. It provides people with a sense of identity but more importantly enables them to exercise a wide range of rights. The lack of nationality can therefore be harmful, in some cases devastating for the individuals concerned.
The 1954 convention on the Status of Stateless Persons requires States to ensure that Stateless Persons are protected. The 1961 Convention on the reduction of Statelessness provides States with tools for avoiding and resolving cases of Statelessness. The Conventions on Statelessness have been ratified by most countries in the West Africa sub-region. However Ghana is yet to ratify the Conventions. Ghana borders with Cote d’Ivoire, a country which has the one of the highest numbers of Stateless persons.
Statelessness Expert, Ms Emmanuelle Mitte of the UNHCR Regional Office for West Africa, who facilitated the workshop, noted that it is important that Ghana engages in developing a strategy to address Statelessness which includes ratification of the Conventions. She said millions of people around the world continue to face serious consequences as a result of being Stateless. “Statelessness has consequences not just for the individual but also the country where they reside. Consequences include freedom of movement of the individual being impeded, access to services such as education and health denied as well as rights such as the right to vote and be voted for denied” she noted. Ms Mitte added that for a country, this could result in conflict as stateless persons might want to demand for some rights to be accorded them. Since Stateless people lack proper documentation, there is the tendency of them being involved in illegal means of travel including trafficking. Statistics are not available for Ghana yet but there are existing risk factors for Ghana.
The Officer in Charge of the UNHCR Representation in Ghana, Mr. Veton Orana called on key stakeholders to assist by playing their roles to ensure Ghana ratifies the two conventions relating to statelessness.
Mr. Orana said considering the level of accession of Ghana to International treaties which has been very positive, it is surprising that Ghana has not ratified any of the two conventions relating to Statelessness.
“Even if we assume there is no issue of Statelessness in Ghana, we believe the issue of statelessness should be included in national legislation because it is not only related to the granting of nationality to those that do not have nationality but rather ensure protection for those who do not have nationality. This will help improve the humanitarian and human rights space in the country” he emphasized.
Mr. Orana said that currently there are no studies in Ghana yet to give statistics on the issue. He said Ghana needs to first do a mapping of the situation to help identify the numbers of stateless persons in Ghana. He added the need for state authorities to close gaps in legislation and practice which cause statelessness, by for instance ensuring easy access to documentation; reducing statelessness by giving stateless persons access to citizenship as well as ensuring protection by granting legal status to stateless persons.
UNHCR has been tasked to undertake measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness as well as to promote the protection of stateless persons.
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