The European Network on Statelessness, which represents over fifty civil society organisations from across Europe, is spearheading a new campaign: 'None of Europe's Children should be Stateless' to raise awareness and promote positive solutions on the issue.

Within the campaign, the (ENS) published a new report No Child Should be Stateless, which reveals that thousands of children are growing up without the basic protection a nationality offers to citizens because of gaps in nationality laws and laws governing procedures for birth registration. The report, which draws on extensive analysis of nationality laws in all 47 Council of Europe states, details a worrying array of problems and makes a series of recommendations designed to guide actions to address – and ultimately end – childhood statelessness in Europe.

Director of the European Network on Statelessness, Chris Nash, said: “No child chooses to be stateless. Every child belongs to a community. Yet statelessness continues to exist because European states are failing to ensure that all children born within Europe’s borders or to European citizen parents acquire a nationality. For a child, the inability to secure any nationality can have enormous consequences and amounts to a severe violation of their human rights.”

Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said “Statelessness increases the vulnerability of children to serious human rights violations, such as trafficking, labour and sexual exploitation, as well as illegal adoption. Stateless children often face multiple, mutually reinforcing forms of marginalization. But statelessness is a solvable issue and as this report shows if governments, regional actors, UN human rights bodies, UN agencies and civil society work together, strategies for action can be developed to tackle and solve this issue once and for all. ”

For more information about the campaign please sign up here.
Download the report here.