A stateless individual is a person who is not a national of any state. A stateless person is someone who is out of his country of origin. The American government looks forward to abolish statelessness and to protect the people who are stateless. It is because people who are stateless are prone to abuses and exploitation. Stateless people will not be able to get a job legally and will not be able to marry.
Around 12 million people around the world are found to be stateless. Statelessness impacts these people and they are often denied basic human rights and the right to nationality. They also have an increased risk of being abused and most stateless people are victims of human trafficking. Women and children are mostly affected by statelessness
The United States led a resolution on the “The Right to a Nationality: Women and Children”. This resolution was led along with Columbia, Mexico, Botswana, Iraq, Slovakia and Turkey. This resolution was passed at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and this resolution is the first of its kind to the Human Rights Council. 49 co-sponsors backed up this resolution. This resolution deals with the discriminating laws that target women. Such laws may lead to statelessness.
The main focus of this resolution is to protect the rights of a woman and a child and it aims at reducing statelessness. Women must be given an equal right to nationality so that they may retain nationality and bestow it to their children. This will reduce their chances of becoming stateless and it will also prevent them from becoming victims of serious crimes, such as human trafficking.
Each and every state has the right to determine who are its nationals. But the resolution requires the states to be vigilant while enforcing or enacting discriminatory laws. The resolution also urged them to reform the laws that may discriminate against women. The United Nations High Commissioner’s effort to prevent the refugees, particularly women, from becoming stateless was welcomed and the Secretary’s initiative to encourage the rights of women to nationality was supported. It was also emphasized that the rights granted to women are the human rights.