UNHCR and SOAS launch statelessness exhibition in Sweden – UNHCR Northern Europe
Artee, a member of the Thai Hill Tribes, was granted Thai citizenship in 2017 after growing up stateless. Many Thai Hill Tribes community members have long been stateless. © UNHCR/Roger Arnold
18-year-old Tha-chaa in Malaysia dreams of becoming an architect but was suspended from school because her documents were deemed insufficient. Rafael in the Philippines hopes to one day compete in regional swimming championships but is unable to obtain a passport to travel.
From Myanmar to Madagascar, millions of people are not recognized as citizens of the countries where they were born, raised and live – or anywhere else. They are stateless. This means that they are often denied basic rights, such as access to education and health care, that their friends and neighbors take for granted.
On October 24, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and SOAS, the Swedish organization against statelessness, launch the photo exhibition We Belong: Global Faces of Statelessness at Folkuniversitetet in central Stockholm.
The exhibition tells the story of 20 individuals from Kenya to the Dominican Republic who are, or until recently were, stateless. Without being recognized as citizens of any state, they fight for recognition and fight for their right to belong. Some have recently received citizenship, while others are still waiting and fighting. They need our support.
The causes of statelessness are diverse. Some people are stateless because they belong to an ethnic group that is not officially recognized by the country they live in. Others are stateless because the country in which they, or their parents, were born ceased to exist. For others, statelessness is a consequence of an administrative error or discriminatory laws and regulations.
In 2014, UNHCR and partners launched the #IBelong campaign, which aims to end statelessness by 2024. Over the past eight years, the world has seen important progress and thousands of stateless individuals have become citizens. But more must be done and efforts must be intensified.
The exhibition can be visited free of charge. On November 3, a public launch of the exhibition will also be held at Folkuniversitetet. The event will shine a light about the global situation of statelessness and the progress of the #IBelong campaign – and more specifically about the situation of stateless people in Sweden. The event will also showcase the consequences of statelessness on the daily lives of people who are stateless.
Since 2014, Sweden has made several important pledges to address statelessness and more than 37,400 formerly stateless people have been granted Swedish citizenship. Currently, over 24,500 people in Sweden are stateless. The Swedish Organization against Statelessness was started in 2020 with the mission of increasing awareness of statelessness in Sweden and influencing politics to ensure everyone’s right to citizenship.
UNHCR recommends Sweden to introduce a statelessness determination procedure to better identify and protect stateless persons, as well as to strengthen protection for children born stateless in Sweden.
The photo exhibition “We Belong: Global Faces of Statelessness” is organized by Folkuniversitetet in Stockholm and will be shown from October 24 to November 9. The public launch event will be held at Folkuniversitetet on Thursday, November 3 at 5-6 p.m.
Kungstensgatan 45, 113 59 Stockholm
Open Mon-Thurs 8am-9pm; Fri 8am-5pm; Sat-Sun 8.30am-5pm
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