A government delegation from Central Asia recently visited the Public Service Development Agency in order to learn about successful practices and progress made in addressing statelessness. The visit to Georgia was organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Thanks to the Agency’s ongoing efforts, Georgia has seen a significant reduction in the number of stateless persons. As a result, Georgia has become recognized as one of the most successful countries in the world in this regard.
Ketevan Betlemidze -Chairperson of the Public Service Development Agency briefed the members of the delegation from four countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – on the practice of interagency cooperation and coordination regarding statelessness and the situation of statelessness in the country prior to and following the accession to UN conventions.
At the meeting, Kemlin Furley – Representative from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), highlighted the progress made by Georgia in addressing statelessness and noted that in 2019 Georgia made voluntary pledges to the UNHCR Executive Committee to further improve the rights of stateless individuals, which will bring the country’s practices closer to international standards.
It is worth noting that Georgia is a party to two UN conventions related to statelessness. In 2011, Georgia acceded to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons. In October 2019, during a session of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Georgia made voluntary pledges to facilitate the naturalization of stateless individuals and the implementation of appropriate measures to ensure the realization of rights. Georgia is the first country among both the participating countries in the UN conventions and the former Soviet republics to introduce a process for determining the status of stateless persons.
