Thirty-six percent of all births worldwide are unregistered, leaving more than forty-eight million children under age five with no legal identity and no formal claim on any state. Often these children come from poor, marginalized or displaced families and the absence of a birth certificate puts them at greater risk of exclusion from essential state services and increased vulnerability to trafficking.

In this telebriefing, funders explored... 

• The fundamentals of stateless children - the "who," "what," "where," and "why" of this critical issue

• International tools and mechanisms that can be used to offer protection to children lacking in legal status

• Entry points for funders seeking to address the problems facing stateless children

Guest Speakers  

• Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of Law, Harvard University; Director of Research, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University   

• Carolyn Hamilton, Director of Research and International Programmes, Coram Children’s Legal Centre; Professor, Essex University (United Kingdom)
  

Moderator

• Emmanuel Otoo, Program Officer, Africa, The Global Fund for Children
  

Resources

• Children Without A State: A Global Human Rights Challenge: Jacqueline Bhabha’s recent book on the issue of stateless children. Select chapters are available online here.
• Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, April 2009: This edition of FMR is focused entirely on the issue of statelessness and is available online here.
• "Administrative Detention of Children: A Global Report": A discussion paper written by Carolyn Hamilton and published by the Children's Legal Centre and UNICEF, available online here.
  

(MEMBERS ONLY: If you are a member of IHRFG and do not have the password for this video, please email Zara Bohan, zbohan[at]ihrfg[dot]org)

IHRFG-Ariadne Telebriefing: "Stateless Children" from IHRFG on Vimeo.

This event is open to grantmakers only.