RELATED LINKS

Statelessness

Statelessness risks in southern Africa stem from many factors including gaps in the legislative and administrative framework related to nationality, migration, and protracted forced displacement. Depriving persons of a nationality constitutes for the countries in the region a missed opportunity for development and prosperity.

  1. Supporting counties across the region on the ratification, accession, and domestication of 1954 Convention which  is designed to ensure that stateless people enjoy a minimum set of human rights and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
  2. Support the country across the region to strengthen their civil registration systems as well as of reforming their nationality legal frameworks.
  3. Support Regional organisations to also putting statelessness higher up in their agenda, the Pan-African parliament is reviewing a draft model law on nationality and statelessness
On 17 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees, after two years of extensive consultations led by UNHCR with Member States, international organizations, refugees, civil society, the private sector, and experts.

The Global Compact on Refugees is a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing, recognizing that a sustainable solution to refugee situations cannot be achieved without international cooperation.

It provides a blueprint for governments, international organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure that host communities get the support they need and that refugees can lead productive lives.

It constitutes a unique opportunity to transform the way the world responds to refugee situations, benefiting both refugees and the communities that host them.

Its four key objectives are to:

Ease the pressures on host countries;

Enhance refugee self-reliance;

Expand access to third-country solutions;

Support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.

To support periodic review, UNHCR will draw upon three distinct but interconnected initiatives referenced in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), namely, the Indicator Framework for the GCR , progress towards implementing pledges and initiatives announced at the Global Refugee Forum (GRF), and the exercise on measuring the impact of hosting, protecting and assisting refugees.

The role of the Global Compact on Refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Global Compact on Refugees and the commitments made at the 2019 Global Refugee Forum support refugees and other people of concern as well as their host communities in their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Read more about it on this page, where you can also find a comprehensive list (marked as “Annex”) of all relevant pledges made at the 2019 Global Refugee Forum that support people of concern during this crisis.”

Related link, GRF: https://www.unhcr.org/gcr/GCR_English.pdf