A Joint Civil Society Submission was made to the International Recommendations on Statelessness Statistics (IROSS) global consultation process, facilitated by the United Nations (UN) Statistics Division. This global consultation process is part of an initiative that is taking place on statistics on statelessness, led by the UN Statistical Commission and coordinated by the Expert Group on Refugee, IDP and Statelessness Statistics (EGRISS). It is all about improving global data on statelessness and more broadly in the context of migration and forced displacement. Similar processes have taken place previously on refugees and IDPs, and the current process on statelessness has been underway for some time. EGRISS has coordinated the production of the draft IROSS, which aim to present a comprehensive set of recommendations on how countries should produce statistics on statelessness.

The Submission includes the following principal recommendations on the IROSS:

• The adoption of the IROSS should be delayed until 2024 to allow for further consultation on the issues raised in our submission;
• Category A(ii) in the proposed statistical framework of the IROSS on group recognition should provide greater clarity on the expected criteria on the basis of which groups will be recognised as prima facie stateless;
• Category B(ii) of the proposed statistical framework should become category A(iii) – stateless persons without recognised stateless status;
• Category B of the proposed statistical framework should be renamed “persons with undetermined nationality”, with subcategory B(i) including only those with “real” links to another country, and category B(ii) including all others who lack proof of nationality;
• The section on administrative data should include recommendations for the collection of data about rejected applications for documents recognising nationality;
• We also consider that the impact of the IROSS on UNHCR’s own reporting should be clarified.

The full submission can be accessed HERE.

The Submission is supported by Apatride Network, Arab Renaissance for Democracy & Development (ARDD), Central Asian Network on Statelessness (CANS), Centro para la Observación Migratoria y el Desarrollo Social en el Caribe (OBMICA), European Network on Statelessness (ENS), Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), MENA Statelessness Network (Hawiati), Nationality for All (NFA), Phiren Amenca – Walk with us, and United Stateless.