Establishing statelessness determination procedure will help Bosnia and Herzegovina to eradicate statelessness
A roundtable on the Statelessness Determination Procedure organized by UNHCR in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with its free legal aid partner-NGO Vaša Prava BiH, took place on 5 July in Sarajevo.
“Relevant Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities met twice back in 2017 and 2018 to discuss the issue of the statelessness determination procedure. We all agreed that there is a need to develop and implement a proper statelessness determination procedure. I hope that today’s event would help to operationalize the statelessness determination mechanism in practice, prevent risk of unnoticed statelessness and enable actual use of the existing naturalization option for stateless persons once statelessness is determined in the clear procedure,” said Anne-Christine Eriksson, UNHCR Regional Representative for South Eastern Europe and Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This roundtable provided continuation of the joint discussion on the best practices related to statelessness determination procedure and consideration of way forward for the development of a detailed statelessness determination procedure in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the exchange of international and regional standards on the procedure, while national experts from Moldova and France shared the specific legal framework of their countries. So far the BiH authorities have granted temporary residence for stateless persons on humanitarian grounds only in a few cases.
During the last decade, with UNHCR’s support, Bosnia and Herzegovina has made many improvements to legislation, policy and practice that have supported the better identification, prevention, reduction of statelessness and protection of stateless persons.
Among other things the progress includes the possibility of facilitated naturalisation for stateless persons. However, the statelessness determination procedure remains a challenge as there is no prescribed procedure to be followed by the relevant authorities.
“Development of the statelessness determination procedure is one of the remaining statelessness issues to be tackled in Bosnia and Herzegovina given significant achievements of the stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the support of UNHCR and Vaša Prava BiH in the area of identification, prevention and reduction of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons.” Ms. Eriksson concluded.
During the roundtable, UNHCR shared a translation of UNHCR’s Handbook on protection of stateless persons, which should assist the authorities, practitioners, judiciary and all other stakeholders in their work with stateless persons.
UNHCR organized this meeting on Statelessness Determination Procedures to support Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of UNHCR’s Global Action Plan to End Statelessness (2014-2024) and UNHCR’s global IBelong campaign.
The roundtable gathered representatives of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Security, the Sector for Asylum and the Sector for Immigration, the Service for Foreigners Affairs, the Border Police, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, the Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsmen, the Directorate for European Integrations, including experts working in areas of asylum, migration and statelessness, the UNHCR’s Representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Regional Office for South Eastern Europe, as well as European experts in the area of statelessness determination procedure.
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