Statelessness.
In response, I think it is time to draft a resolution that reduces statelessness and note that this draft focuses on nationality (not citizenship) and reducing statelessness, not asylum and refugees because that's already covered...
Reduction of Statelessness
Category: Human Rights
Strength: Mild to Significant
OBSERVING that a person may become stateless for reasons such as: birth on territory where no nations claim sovereignty over it, belonging to a group who are denied nationality in the country they were born in, or having nationality of a nation that ceased to exist without a successor nation(s);
CONCERNED that statelessness causes problems to both member states and stateless persons in respect of: automatic right of return, immigration, and criminal deportation;
SEEKING to reducing statelessness, by affording the right of nationality to all inhabitants in member states;
The World Assembly,
DEFINES for the purpose of this resolution:
• A “State” as a internationally recognised sovereign political entity;
• “Nationality” as the status of a person belonging to a particular state, where such status grants the automatic right of return to that state, that state's jurisdiction over that purpose and, upon attaining citizenship, grants the person civil and political rights of that state;
• “Statelessness” as having no nationality of any existing state;
ASSUMES that a person who is citizen of a state also has the nationality of the said state;
1. DECLARES that every person has the right to a nationality and the right to change their nationality;
2. DECLARES that for the purpose of assigning nationality:
• A foundling (abandoned child of unknown parentage) shall be presumed to have been born in the member state where it was found, unless there is evidence to prove the true country of the foundling's birth or the nationality of the foundling's parent(s) within three months of said finding;
• A stateless birth on a transport or space vessel on territory which no nations claim sovereignty to (air, sea or space) shall amount to a birth in the territory of the member state that gave its flag to that vessel;
3. PROVIDES for member states to determine their criteria for the acquirement of nationality and citizenship, provided that such criterion is in good faith compliance with the clauses and intents of section 1.
DEFINES FURTHER, “renunciation of nationality” as where a person wishes to cease being a national of said country;
4. MANDATES that member states’ legislation regarding the renunciation of nationality shall be conditional upon a person’s acquisition or possession of another nationality;
5. PROHIBITS member states from depriving their civilian(s) of their nationality, so as to render them stateless, for any reason other than:
• Acquirement of nationality or citizenship by misrepresentation or fraud;
• Treason against that member state, unless no other state is willing to take them in;
6. CALLS FOR treaties regarding the transfer of territory (between member states or to a successor member state) to include provisions to prevent statelessness, with respect given to this resolution.
Bloopers:
2. MANDATES that, subject to the provisions on article 3, member states shall grant nationality to persons, otherwise stateless, who is:
• Born in their territory, and that the grant of nationality may be by virtue of birth or upon application by or on behalf of the person born in their territory,
• Legally prevented from assuming the nationality held by their parent(s) at the time of the birth,
• Not born in their territory, but the parent(s) possesses that member state’s nationality;
3. PROVIDES for member states to require that the grant of nationality upon application may be on condition that:
• The applicant has proof of habitual residence in their territory for up to: five years (before application), or ten years overall (without application);
• The applicant has not been: convicted of treason against the state, or sentenced to penal servitude for five years or more;
• The applicant has always been stateless;
4. MANDATES that if a law entails loss of nationality by:
• Marriage/union, divorce, or adoption, or
• A spouse or person under age of majority by virtue of the loss of nationality by the other spouse or a parent,
Such loss must be conditional on the affected person acquiring another nationality.
Wait a minute, what has marriage got to do with this draft?
OBSERVING that a person may become stateless for reasons such as: birth on territory where no nations claim sovereignty over it, belonging to a group which is denied nationality in the country they were born in, or having nationality of a country that ceased to exist without any successor state;
CONCERNED that statelessness causes many problems to both member states and stateless persons in respect of: civil rights, the automatic right of return, immigration, and criminal deportation;
SEEKING to resolve such issues by reducing statelessness, by affording the right of nationality to all inhabitants in member states;
The World Assembly,
RESOLVES everything that is wrong in relation to the issue of statelessness, the right of nationality and anything that causes the issue of statelessness. The end.
Ms Harper: You wish!
Ms. Sarah Harper,
Chief Ambassador for the Mind of Charlotte Ryberg, to the World Assembly
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