Coșbuc MUN 2022

Economic and Social Council

Ending statelessness

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland

The issue of statelessness is widely believed to have affected 12 million people around the
world at the moment, according to UNHCR, and has been a dangerously increasing threat for
states, either due to the rising number of refugees caused by the crisis, the current judicial
system which fails to offer a sustainable framework or other occurring factors. Being in
possession of citizenship plays a crucial role in every major field of a person’s life, as many
opportunities are restricted if you do not attain a valid ID, such as but not limited to, voting,
owning a house, opening a bank account, traveling, going to school or university, marrying or
going to the doctor. Stateless people have also been proven to be more exposed to experiencing
gender–based violence, ethnic, religious or racial discrimination and economic exploitation, as
they are forced to work illegally in order to sustain themselves and their families. Statelessness
represents a problem of international relevance which calls for urgency to be resolved by the
contribution of all states.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has a long and perpetual history of
offering aid and assistance to stateless people through afferent institutions or other procedures
meant to open the possibility of gaining British citizenship. It is reminded that this state was
one of the first states to endorse and implement the 1961 Convention on Reduction of
Statelessness, a document that remains at the core of regulations purposed for helping stateless
people. In addition, the United Kingdom has also been one of the signatories of the 1954
Convention Related to the Status of Stateless Persons and has been dutifully respecting and
promoting the respective agreement. Recently, the UK government has passed the 2022
Nationality and Borders Act which aims to reform the asylum system and illegal entry into the
UK territory with the purpose, among others, of strengthening regulations processing
citizenship applications and of updating the methods and conditions under which stateless
people are granted British citizenship. Moreover, multiple non – governmental organizations,
such as Asylum Aid and Garden Court Chambers constitute valuable resources for stateless
people in need of advice when applying for British citizenship.
Since the 1st of January 1983, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has
introduced its citizenship to the United Kingdom nationality law, removing the principle of jus
soli, intending to accord citizenship to people with a connection to the UK. That is, the State
has the people’s best interest at heart and is purposefully making efforts to ensure that British
citizenship is allocated to everyone matching the criteria. The Kingdom has been a
longstanding ally of the United Nations, pushing for the rights of stateless people and
representing a pioneer in the fight of eradicating statelessness, within the limits and powers of
the State. As such, a UNHCR report found that, at the end of 2021, there were only 258 people
recognized as stateless by the UK’s statelessness determination procedure. Nevertheless, the
UK government is continuously and actively taking action to better its procedures and methods,
in accordance with the existent law system and international conventions the UK is proudly a
signatory of. The amount of accessible information, clearly explained, as well as the available
agencies related to statelessness and straightforward application process solidifies the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as an advocate and supporter against
statelessness.

Taking into consideration the aforementioned aspects and the imperativeness of the issue, the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland proposes the following solutions, which
we believe to be effective and sustainable in eliminating statelessness: the implementation of a
more rigorous algorithm that would ensure the correct identification of stateless persons;
crafting an economic framework which would help people who do not attain citizenship work
and apply for jobs without having to resort to illegal work (a possible version of implementing
the solutions mentioned above would be the creation of temporary work visas for stateless
people), reforming the citizenship application process, as to increase in effectiveness and speed
and to ensure protection for people who are truly in need; forming a special international
agency for the management of stateless people in collaboration with state governments.

To conclude, the United Kingdom wishes for profitable and valuable solutions to be proposed,
discussed, and drafted by the Economic and Social Council and expresses its openness to
finding better ways of combating statelessness.

Bibliography:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/immigration/becoming-a-british-citizen/

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/36/section/11/enacted
https://index.statelessness.eu/country/united-kingdom

https://www.ohchr.org/en/nationality-and-statelessness

https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-stateless

https://www.asylumaid.org.uk/node/63

http://www.angliaimmigration.co.uk/immigration-services/british-citizenship/