© UNHCR/J. Berglund
From the left; Hans ten Feld, UNHCR Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic Countries, Marina Kaljurand, Undersecretary, Economic and Development Affairs of Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Rait Maruste, Chairman of the Constitutional Committee.
Statelessness is an enormous problem that millions of people worldwide are confronted with. As a stateless person you are technically not a citizen of any country. Stateless people are often denied basic rights and access to employment, housing, education and health care. On 17 May 2011, the Constitutional Committee of Estonia’s Parliament Riigikogu and UNHCR Regional Office for the Baltic and Nordic countries launched the UNHCR-Inter-Parliamentary Union’s ‘Nationality and Statelessness: A handbook for Parliamentarians’ in Tallinn.
- This handbook translated into Estonian will help us be better informed and make good political decisions, says Rait Maruste, Chairman of the Constitutional Committee. – For historical reasons, statelessness is also a problem in Estonia.
After the break-up of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s many members of the group of ethnic Russians and former citizens of the Soviet Union became stateless. At the beginning of 2011, there were some 100,983 persons with “undefined/undetermined citizenship” with valid residence permit or right of residence in Estonia. Of them around 2,000 are children under 15 years of age.
- UNHCR welcomes the fact that the number of “persons with undetermined citizenship” has just recently dipped below 100,000. Likewise we appreciate the initiative of the Estonian Ministry of the Interior to conduct an awareness-raising campaign aimed at reducing statelessness among children, says Hans ten Feld, UNHCR Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic Countries.
By translating the handbook “Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians” into Estonian, UNHCR also wants to promote the two Statelessness Conventions and encourage Estonia to accede to them.
- We believe that there is still room for finding better ways to bring solutions to the plight of those stateless persons who remain to reside in the territory of Estonia. UNHCR is also interested to learn more about the reasons behind the low rate of naturalization on the part of “persons with undetermined citizenship”, concludes Hans ten Feld.
UNHCR is mandated to reduce and prevent statelessness and to protect stateless persons. This year the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness turns 50 years. As part of UNHCR’s commemoration campaign to promote the statelessness conventions and awareness among the general public, UNHCR has translated the UNHCR and Inter-Parliamentary Union ‘Handbook on Statelessness and Nationality’ into Estonian and Latvian. The handbook is now available in 25 languages.
Closing the launch event, Rait Maruste, Chairman of the Constitutional Committee at the Parliament of Estonia urged parliamentarians not only to take a copy of the handbook, but also to read it!
- There are approximately 12 million stateless people worldwide.
- As of 1 January 2011, there were 100,983 persons with “undefined/undetermined citizenship” with valid residence permit or right of residence in Estonia.
- Of them around 2,000 are children under 15 years of age.
- Estonia has not yet acceded to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness nor the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
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