UNHCR organized this year’s first meeting of the Working Group on Statelessness

On 23 March 2023, UNHCR Armenia organized this year’s first meeting of the Working Group (WG) on Statelessness composed of representatives of state authorities, civil society, legal experts and academia, cooperating in the framework of UNHCR’s #IBELONG campaign to end statelessness.

In her opening remarks, the newly appointed Representative in Armenia, Ms. Kavita Belani, greeted the participants wishing all a productive discussion and acknowledged their joint efforts aimed at prevention and reduction of statelessness in Armenia. She particularly appreciated their endeavour to assume legislative initiatives enabling to address statelessness in Armenia in an effective and efficient manner.

Referring to the global #IBELONG campaign, Ms. Belani highlighted the importance of people’s right to a nationality saying:

“UNHCR under its mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness, works in partnership with states and communities to build a world where everyone can say “I belong!”.”

Welcoming the UNHCR Representative and the WG members, the Deputy Head of the Passport and Visa Department of the newly created Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Armenia, Ms. Mariam Gevorgyan, provided an update about the current state of the draft Law on Foreigners and Stateless Persons, as well as on statelessness statistics, followed by active discussions and brainstorming.

During the meeting, the UNHCR Armenia National Protection Officer, Ms. Susanna Grigoryan, presented to the WG UNHCR’s 2023-2024 Action Plan on Statelessness, the major achievements recorded in the past years and Armenia’s best practices in preventing statelessness highly welcomed by other countries. Ms. Grigoryan also updated the group on the possibilities of trainings on statelessness, including the Statelessness online course of the Sanremo International Institute of Humanitarian Law already undertaken by several partner agencies’ lawyers with the support of UNHCR, and other opportunities available for the state authorities, NGOs, legal experts and academia.

The Vice President of UNHCR’s partner Mission Armenia NGO, Ms. Alla Harutyunyan, briefed the WG members on the past years’ achievements in tackling statelessness in Armenia and the next milestones assumed with the guidance of and in partnership with UNHCR. Ms. Harutyunyan also briefed the participants about the ongoing “US Embassy – Julia Taft Fund” project related to statelessness successfully implemented by the Mission Armenia NGO.

The event included UNHCR colleague Anahit Hayrapetyan’s presentation on #IBELONG campaign to end statelessness and its online platform, combined by some interesting human-interest stories and video-photo materials. The participants were impressed by the photo-gallery illustrating the plight of the stateless people who, having gone through difficulties and desperation, had acquired nationality thanks to the WG’s genuine efforts and professionalism.

As expressed by a former refugee woman featured in one of the films, “After so many years of hardships, I now have a nationality and feel at home in my country Armenia where I belong to and live a dignified life”.