Philippines, Croatia, Nigeria sign key UN treaty

Although the Palestinian bid for formal UN statehood has stolen the headlines this week, a number of other significant diplomatic achievements have been made at the UN meeting. Notably, Croatia, Nigeria and the Philippines have become parties to one or both of the international treaties on statelessness. The Philippines has become the first country in Southeast Asia to sign the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which defines statelessness and enshires minimum standards of treatment. Croatia has signed the 1954 treaty, along with the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which provides principles and a legal framework to prevent statelessness. Up to 12 million people are believed to be currently stateless. These people lack nationality, identity documents and are routinely denied their basic rights to health care, education, housing and jobs. Most new cases of statelessness today come from children born to stateless parents; something that can be avoided if countries sign the 1961 treaty which automatically gives the children born to stateless parents nationality in their host country. The UNHCR considers these recent accessions to be significant. It is hoped that Nigeria’s accession might provide the diplomatic might needed to encourage other African states to sign the treaty “With these accessions, the numbers of states that are party to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions now stand at 68 and 40 respectively. Given that the UN has 193 member states, these figures are still disappointingly low”, the UNHCR said in a statement. “UNHCR is calling on governments to seriously consider acceding to both treaties. We also urge those states that are considering accession to start procedures at the national level.” “We are hopeful that more countries will follow the example set by Croatia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Panama - which acceded in June - and become party to the two statelessness conventions.” The UNHCR will hold a treaty ceremony in December to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1961 convention. The UNCHR says that a number of states have expressed their intention to sign the treaty during the celebrations.