BETA

Activities of Soraya POST related to 2016/2220(INI)

Shadow reports (1)

2016/11/22
Committee: AFET
Dossiers: 2016/2220(INI)
Documents: PDF(396 KB) DOC(77 KB)

Amendments (34)

Motion for a resolution
Citation 1

– having regard to the provisions of the UN ~~legal instruments in the sphere of human righ~~Human Rights instruments, in particular those concerning the right to nationality, such as the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights ~~and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights~~, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the ~~Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimina~~International convention ~~and~~on the ~~Conven~~Protection onf the Rights of ~~the Child~~All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 2 a (new)

– having regard to the General recommendation 32 from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against women on the gender-related dimension of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 a (new)

– having regard to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the June 1993 World Conference on Human Rights,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 b (new)

– having regard to the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 c (new)

– having regard to the EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy of 25 June 2012,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 a (new)

– having regard to the European Parliament resolution of 25 October 2016 on human rights and migration in third countries,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 b (new)

– having regard to its resolution of 12 March 2015 on the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the world 2013 and the European Union's policy on the matter,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Citation 11 a (new)

– having regard to the Directorate- General for External Policies study "Addressing the Human Rights impact of statelessness in the EU’s external action" November 2014,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital A

A. whereas the region of South Asia and Southeast Asia consists of the following countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam – who are all Members or have observers status of either the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC);

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)

Aa. whereas all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated; whereas human rights and fundamental freedoms are the birth right of all human beings and their protection and promotion is the first responsibility of governments;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital C

C. whereas a stateless person is defined in the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Person as someone ‘who is not considered as a national of any State under operation of its law’; whereas the causes of statelessness can vary, including but not limited to being forced to flee, migration, changes and gaps in nationality laws, expiration of nationality through having lived outside of one’s country for an extended period of time, gender discrimination, administrative and bureaucratic hurdles;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)

Ca. whereas it is important to note that whether a person is stateless a distinct question from whether they are a refugee; most stateless people have never left the place where they were born or have never crossed an international border;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)

Cb. whereas the causes of statelessness can vary, including but not limited to religious and racial discrimination, gender discrimination, changing views on who belongs to the country as nationals, the lack of registration of birth certificates, changes and gaps in nationality laws, being forced to flee, migration, expiration of nationality through having lived outside of one’s country for an extended period of time as well as administrative and bureaucratic hurdles;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital D

D. whereas statelessness is a ~~multifaceted problem~~human rights challenge and often a consequence of human rights neglect; while it also has a serious and lasting impact on other human rights issues, including but not limited to problems relating to birth certificates and other civil status documents, ~~as well as~~exclusion from child health programmes and the state's school system, other documents relating to property, educational achievement and business ownership, political representation and voting participation, access to social security and public services; whereas statelessness may contribute to human trafficking and child abuse;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)

Da. whereas legislative gender discrimination, for example in acquiring or passing on nationality to one’s child or spouse is still present in South and Southeast Asia in countries such as Nepal, Malaysia, Brunei;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)

Db. whereas the UNHCR has made an estimation that 135 million children under 5 years of age across the region have not had their births registered and are at risk of becoming stateless;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Dc. whereas the ending of statelessness will also lead to more democracy as former stateless persons will now be included in and be able to contribute to the democratic processes;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital E

E. whereas the right to a nationality is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ~~othe~~nearly all other major global human rights instruments and conventions;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital F

F. whereas The Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014 – 2024 of the UNHCR aims to resolve existing major situations of statelessness, prevent new cases of emerging and better identify and protect stateless populations; as well as points to the need to improve quantitative and qualitative data on statelessness;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital J

J. whereas many of the world’s 10 million stateless persons reside in South and Southeast Asia, with the Rohingya of Myanmar being the single largest stateless group in the world, with ~~over 8~~nearly 1 000 000 persons under the UNHCR’s statelessness mandate, but large communities of stateless people are also found in Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and elsewhere; whereas South and Southeast Asia have both protracted and unresolved cases, such as the stateless Tibetans, as well as cases where effective progress has been made, at least on paper;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)

Ja. whereas all stateless individuals count and all cases of statelessness, major as well as minor, are equally important to address;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Recital L

L. whereas the Rohingya are one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, and have been officially stateless since the 1982 Burmese Citizenship Law; whereas the Rohingya are un~~want~~recognised by the Myanmar authorities and by neighbouring countries, although some of the latter host large refugee populations; whereas ongoing clashes in Rakhine State are causing continued human trafficking;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1a. Recalls that the statistical coverage and reporting on stateless populations around the world is incomplete; notes that the issue remains hidden in many countries and that there are no reliable figures for the number or situation of the persons affected;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)

1b. Is concerned that the data on the stateless populations of South and Southeast Asia is not complete and that we lack comprehensive data on statelessness for whole countries such as Bhutan, India, Nepal and East Timor;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)

1c. Is concerned over the insufficient or the absence of intersectional, disaggregated data for any of the countries in the region on the situation for stateless women, children and other vulnerable groups; that this lack of intersectional, disaggregated data and information creates difficulties to analyse the circumstances for stateless persons on interrelated grounds such as gender, age, socio-economic situation or if belonging to vulnerable groups such as LGBTI or persons with disabilities, as well as difficulties to formulate the actions needed to reach the UNHR goal to end statelessness in 2024; strongly encourages the states in South and Southeast Asia to identify and produce intersectional and disaggregated data on statelessness;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 d (new)

1d. Welcomes the initiative from the Philippines in May 2016 to address the need for data on the scale and the situation of stateless children in the region; calls on the EU to support and cooperate with states in the region to comprehensively map statelessness and to identify projects to end statelessness in the region;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 e (new)

1e. Is deeply concerned that the States of Brunei, Malaysia and Nepal have discriminatory legislation based on gender; stresses the need for review of nationality law related provisions specifically in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 f (new)

1f. Welcomes the positive developments in the region and the efforts in the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand and encourages the countries in the region to work together and to share good examples and efforts in order to end statelessness in the entire region;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 g (new)

1g. Reminds of the post-statelessness situation in the region and of the human rights principle of participation; promotes the inclusion of communities affected by statelessness and formerly stateless people in development projects and planning; encourages governments and development projects to address post-stateless discrimination inspired by article 4(1) in CEDAW aimed at accelerating de facto equality;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2a. Strongly encourages states to implement the safeguard, also enshrined in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, that a person born in the state also will be granted nationality if the person otherwise would be stateless;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Welcomes the commitment of the Council in its conclusions on the Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2015-2019 to address the issue of statelessness in relations with priority countries and in addition welcomes the commitment of the Council to strengthening its relationship with (ASEAN); recommends that the focus of the efforts stretch beyond the emergence of stateless populations as a result of conflict, displacement and the break-up of states to also include other relevant aspects such as statelessness as a result of discrimination as well as due to a lack of birth and civil registration,

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)

3a. Recalls the action promised in the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy of the development of a joint framework between the Commission and the EEAS for raising issues of statelessness with third countries; the producing and sharing of a formal framework would be instrumental in the European Union support to the UNHCR goal to end statelessness in the world by 2024;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 – introductory part

4. Recommends that the Member States make it a priority to support the positive developments in addressing statelessness in South and Southeast Asia, and proposes a new comprehensive ~~policy approach including~~EU guideline including but not limited to:

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 – indent 3

– advocating with states on the benefits of gathering intersectional, disaggregated national data on stateless persons and those with undetermined nationality for purposes of registration, documentation, delivery of public services, maintenance of law and order and development planning;

2016/12/15
Committee: AFET