Participants at a round-table meeting organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja have harped on the need for West African countries to have robust biometric data of people living in the region.
The roundtable which was on addressing statelessness in the ECOWAS region had in attendance experts from UNHCR, ECOWAS, civil society organizations, ministry of interior, academia, and the media.
Statelessness which occurs when a person is not considered as a nationality of any country has become a major issue worldwide with about 10 million people said to be stateless. It is estimated that at least 1 million stateless people reside in West Africa and Nigeria adds significantly to this burden with over 750,000 stateless people allegedly residing in the country.
Experts have however warned that the figure might increase considering the spate of violence in the West Africa sub-region particularly in Nigeria that has been battling Boko Haram crisis in the north east, farmers-herders crisis in the north central and Bakassi crisis in south-southern state of Cross River.
Although the West African sub-region has received global accolades for been the first in the world to adopt an action plan to end statelessness, the issue of data collection has been a major stumbling block. The 15-member ECOWAS signed a declaration in January 2015 that seeks to end statelessness but implementation has not been impressive, says Adeniyi Olatunbosun, a professor of law from the University of Ibadan in his keynote address at the roundtable.
Prof. Adeniyi said despite the action plan by ECOWAS seeking to boost the use of data, improve laws and policies around statelessness and guarantee their access to proof of nationality only 3 of the 15 member states have deployed biometric in the region. Calling for a West African Network Group to tackle statelessness in the region, Adeniyi, decried the dearth of data in the region particularly in Nigeria stating that the issuance of national identity card to Nigerians has not lived up to expectations.
“Statelessness is a reality in Africa and there is a need for authorities in the region to work together. Most importantly, there is need for a West African Group to help address the issue of statelessness in the region. Government officials must imbibe administrative good practice in resolving cases of statelessness in line with the best interest of the child devoid of administrative bottlenecks, bureaucracy and red-tapeism.
“The majority of the identified stateless people and people at risk of statelessness are living on the margins of society and are not appreciated by the community where they reside,” he said.
It is not all that gloomy. Earlier in her opening remarks, the UNHCR Deputy Representative to Nigeria, Ms. Brigitte Mukanga-Eno stressed that statelessness can be resolved with adequate political will. She said the goals of eradicating statelessness is looking increasing possible due to the recent progress in the number of states acceding to key UN human rights treaties.
“In 2011, there were barely 100 states parties to the two statelessness treaties –the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Today, the number of accessions stands at 164 (91 accessions to the 1954 Convention and 73 accessions to the 1961 Convention respectively), bringing critical mass within reach,” she said.
The UNHCR has been at the forefront of advocating for the eradication of statelessness and has since the launching of the #Ibelong campaign been collaborating with ECOWAS and other stakeholders.