In an effort to stem the rising incidence of statelessness across the world and West Africa in particular, the UNHCR is organising a conference in Senegal on the topic for 30 journalists drawn from all the West African countries.

The meeting is being held with the exception of Liberia, Guinea –Conakry and Sierra Leone.

The conference discussed topics including Nationality and Statelessness, Stateless Population in West Africa, Causes and Consequences of Statelessness, International Conventions on the Protection of Stateless Persons, Statelessness in Africa and the Right to Nationality in the African Union.

Others were Global Campaign to end Statelessness, How to participate in a Country-Wide Implementation of the Global Campaign to end Statelessness and Ethical Considerations in Media Coverage of Statelessness.

Some of the resource persons included Emmanuelle Mitte, Senior Regional Protection Officer on Statelessness, UNHCR Country Representation in Senegal; Ms Maya Sahli Fadec, Special Rapporteur, African Commission for Human and People’s Rights, African Union Office in Banjul and Madam Nora Sturm, Associate Public Information Officer, UNHCR Country Representation in Cote D’Ivoire.

Statelessness refers to the condition of an individual who is not considered as a national by any State under the operations of its law.

Although stateless people may sometimes also be refugees, the two categories are distinct in international law.

The main causes of statelessness are gaps in nationality laws, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, inability to register children at birth, inability of mothers to transfer their nationality to their children due to constitutional provisions as practiced in Liberia, restrictive administrative practices, for example, in relation to issuance of documents which prove nationality.

While human rights are in principle universal and inherent, in practice a large range of fundamental human rights are denied to stateless people, who are often unable to obtain identity documents, denied healthcare, own property and even register their marriages.

According to the UNHCR, statelessness affects 10 million people worldwide with one million of them residing in West Africa.