A coordination consultation meeting on the issue of statelessness organized jointly by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representation in Tajikistan was held in Shahritous (Khatlon province) on October 5.

According to the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, the event brought together representatives of local passport offices, law enforcement agencies, jamoat as well as civil society organizations from the six regions of Tajikistan.

The meeting was specifically held in Shahritous since the region has a relatively high number of people who do not have citizenship documents.

In 2014 UNHCR together with government and civil society partners started its national project on addressing statelessness in Shahritous.  Today, two years later, government and civil society participants are sharing their experience in working with and supporting people without citizenship documents and status, and discussing the best ways forward to address statelessness.

“Today’s event will help both the OSCE and UNHCR, civil society and local authorities to understand better the nature and the scale of the problem,” said Friederike Behr, Human Rights Officer at the OSCE Office.  “A strong focus of the meeting will be on sharing good practices, which can help all participants to improve the work done for and around statelessness.”

Vito Trani, UNHCR Representative in Tajikistan said: “Whether due to the break-up of the Soviet Union, the civil war or conflicts in neighboring countries of Tajikistan, becoming stateless deprives people of basic rights.  They may be unable to send their children to school, to acquire property, to work or to travel.  Where we can prevent statelessness, we can prevent poverty and desperation.”

This joint event marked the first of a series of activities planned by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan together with the UNHCR as part of initiatives to support efforts in the areas of refugee protection and statelessness and to raise awareness on these topics amongst both governmental and non-governmental sectors.  The meeting is a part of a wider range of meetings on human rights, organized by the OSCE Field Offices in Tajikistan and co-ordinated by the OSCE Office’s Human Dimension Department.