The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced the foundation of the New Global Alliance to End Statelessness in a press release on Tuesday. The project marks the collaborative efforts of more than 100 states, civil society organizations, stateless-led entities, academics and others to “confine statelessness to the history books”.

The Global Alliance seeks to embody coordinated and collaborative action and act with bold pragmatism in pursuit of a right to nationality unencumbered by discrimination. To achieve this, the Global Alliance emphasises the contributions of stateless-led organizations and lived experiences of statelessness.

Statelessness advocate Nosizi Dube addressed those present, sharing her journey to achieving citizenship and urging those present to join the collective efforts to end statelessness everywhere. The event has been described as the “most significant multilateral global convening on statelessness since 2019”.

It was revealed during the Segment that at the end of June this year, there were approximately 122.6 million individuals displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence and human rights violations. The number marked an increase of 12.6 million from June last year. The Alliance explains:

[M]illions of people are denied a nationality and are stateless, with serious impacts on their ability to enjoy even the most basic rights. Often, they are excluded from cradle to grave – being denied a legal identity when they are born, access to education, health care, marriage and job opportunities during their lifetime, and even the dignity of an official burial and a death certificate when they die.

The introduction of the Alliance takes strength from the mission of the #IBelong campaign. The UNHCR says, “While the #IBelong campaign was a UNHCR-led effort to raise awareness and catalyze action, the Global Alliance represents a concerted shift toward multi-stakeholder collaboration”. The Alliance will be led by a 15-member Advisory Committee made up of the diverse stakeholders that characterise its constituency but with an emphasis on including organizations led by individuals with lived experiences of statelessness. The Committee will serve a tenure of three years.