Guyana made four pledges at a recent conference in Geneva, Switzerland to help those affected by statelessness and the plight of Venezuelans who have fled here to avoid hardship was also on the agenda.
A release from the Ministry of the Presidency said that Technical Officer, Department of Citizenship, Jermaine Grant, recently attended a five-day High-Level Meeting on Statelessness in Geneva, Switzerland.
Grant, who represented Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, on Monday made a presentation to a Multi-agency Coordinating Committee Meeting for addressing the influx of Venezuelan Migrants into Guyana.
The Technical Officer emphasized that in keeping with the Citizenship Act of Guyana, the Department is doing expansive work to address statelessness, including the registration of Venezuelan migrants and children of Guyanese parentage.
Grant told the committee that with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Guyana Embassy in Geneva, he made four pledges and though not legally binding, they show Guyana’s commitment on tackling statelessness.
The four pledges are:
-to continue to simplify access to birth registration procedures, including late registration to ensure universal birth registration;
-to ensure that particular groups which are entitled to nationality under the law and that have not acquired documentation proof of nationality are able to do so by improving access to such persons to national documentation services;
– working with UNHCR to raise awareness and foster common understanding about statelessness and nationality through outreaches, and
-to implement its obligation under the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, in relation to a target that speaks to birth registration which in itself addresses the question of statelessness.
Grant said that at the end of the meeting it was reported that 360 pledges were made by 88 Governments, Regional Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations. Of that number 251 pledges were made by 59 States, out of which four came from Guyana, the release said.
The pledges, he said, covered a number of issues, inclusive of gender discrimination, protection, verification and naturalisation of persons who are considered stateless.
He said the participating Latin America countries raised the issue of the Venezuelan crisis.
The meeting was held from October 7 – 11 at Palais des Nations.
