RSC Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2024
Protection of the right to nationality: Resolution No. 02/23 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Protección del derecho a la nacionalidad: Resolución No. 02/23 de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos
Seminar held on 6 March 2024
Watch the video on Vimeo in English
Watch the video on Vimeo in Spanish
About the seminar
Legal barriers and discriminatory practices still prevent or hinder the enjoyment of the right to nationality, despite the safeguards established by the different States in the region of the Americas. Faced with these challenges, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights published Resolution No. 02/23 on the protection of the right to nationality, prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality and statelessness.
Based on the experience of the panelists, this discussion will allow us to delve deeper into the development of standards on the matter, the most pressing restrictions to effectively ensure the right to nationality and propose appropriate responses.
Spanish:
Barreras legales y prácticas discriminatorias aún impiden o dificultan el goce del derecho a la nacionalidad, pese a las salvaguardias establecidas por los diferentes Estados en la región de las Américas. Frente a estos desafíos, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos publicó la Resolución No. 02/23 sobre la protección del derecho a la nacionalidad, prohibición de privación arbitraria de nacionalidad y apatridia.
Partiendo de la experiencia de las panelistas, este conversatorio permitirá profundizar en el desarrollo de los estándares sobre la materia, las restricciones más apremiantes para asegurar de manera efectiva el derecho a la nacionalidad, y proponer respuestas adecuadas.
About the speakers
Commissioner Andrea Pochak, Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants, IACHR
Andrea Pochak was appointed Commissioner by the 53rd OAS General Assembly for the period January 2024-December 2027. She is a lawyer and activist, specialized in human rights from the Republic of Argentina, with extensive experience in the Inter-American Human Rights System. Throughout her career, she has held various public positions and has been a member of important human rights organizations. In this sense, she served as Undersecretary of Protection and International Liaison of the National Secretariat of Human Rights; she was a member of the National Commission of Refugees; General Director of Human Rights of the Public Prosecutor's Office; and Head of Technical Cooperation Projects of the Institute of Public Policies on Human Rights of MERCOSUR. She was also Deputy Director of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and representative for Argentina of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). She is a guest lecturer and author of articles on human rights, criminal law, and the administration of justice. She is a citizen of Argentina.
Dr Laura van Waas
Laura van Waas is a co-founder and a Co-Director of ISI. Her background is in human rights law and since starting to work on statelessness in 2004 Laura has particularly focused on research and education. Based out of ISI’s Rotterdam office, she has helped shape ISI’s knowledge-building work – designing training, developing targeted resources for building the statelessness literacy of different audiences and leading cutting-edge projects on emerging issues. Laura’s PhD manuscript, ‘Nationality Matters’ (Intersentia, 2008), is widely used as a reference on international statelessness law and she has (co)authored a diverse array of other academic publications. Laura is the co-founding Editor in Chief, with Professor Michelle Foster, of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review, and from 2011 to 2022, she was a part-time Assistant Professor at Tilburg Law School, where she taught on statelessness and supervised LLM and PhD research.
José Sieber
José Sieber is a Brazilian attorney (advogado), with degrees in Law and International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, and a Master of Studies (MSt.) degree in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University. He has been an international civil servant with UNHCR since 2003. He has held various protection functions with UNHCR's operations in Ecuador, Venezuela and Mexico in Latin America, as well as in Jordan and Afghanistan, UNHCR’s Division of International Protection in Geneva and its Learning Centre in Budapest. Since 2021, he is a Senior Protection Officer covering South America with UNHCR's Regional Office in Panama City.