With the financial support of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partner Vaša Prava BiH organized a round table on providing free legal aid to stateless persons and people at risk of statelessness today.
The meeting was organized to review the results and to discuss ways of strengthening the capacity of free legal aid providers to end statelessness in Bosnia and Herzegovina as soon as possible.
Hugues Bissot, Head of the Protection Unit of UNHCR BiH, pointed out that significant progress has been made in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past ten years with regards to resolving the issue of statelessness.
“Today in BiH, there is a relatively low number of people waiting to acquire the right to citizenship and all other rights deriving from citizenship. If the remaining small number of cases are resolved next year, it would be a great success for Bosnia and Herzegovina because it will become the first country in Europe to resolve known cases of statelessness. That is why the engagement of all segments of society is needed “, Mr. Bissot emphasized.
The round table also provided an opportunity to discuss the possibility of involving the free legal aid sector in solving the problems of other vulnerable categories of persons on the move.
The UN Refugee Agency in BiH, in cooperation with the Vaša Prava BiH, has been actively contributing to improving access to justice through providing free legal aid to vulnerable categories of persons, such as stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness, internally displaced persons, and returnees, refugees, as well as other vulnerable categories of persons to ensure their basic human rights and freedoms.
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