Kota Kinabalu: The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Malaysia does not provide services for stateless children in the country unlike in many other parts of the world where it might be providing basic shelter, healthcare, birth registration for children and so on.
Nevertheless, Unicef and child organisations in Malaysia do work with the government to look at structures to ensure basic rights for all children, including stateless children and children who are entitled to claim Malaysian citizenship.
Guy Thompstone, Director of the Child Frontiers which is currently working with Unicef in Indonesia and Malaysia to conduct national assessments of the child and family welfare systems, said this when met at the Unicef media workshop on child protection held at the Promenade Hotel, Thursday.
"Any children around the world have a set of inherent rights to which they would be able to claimÉthat goes for any child regardless of nationality, birth, citizenship, ethnic and origin, every single child has rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that they should be able to claim," he said.
Saying the issue of children without documents that may actually be legally stateless is an issue also faced by many other countries, he said, Unicef for example, often works in many countries and in collaboration with UNHCR on this particular issue.
"In a situation of a conflict where children have been displaced often with their families maybe to a third world country or internally displaced within their own country," Thompstone said.
That statelessness really means that the child cannot prove his/her citizenship in any particular country, he added, saying this leaves many such children around the world vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation and abusive situations.
"It often means they are not able to access the basic primary rights to education, health services, the rights to remain with their families and eventually cannot enjoy all the rights under the CRC as they deserve," he said.
On solutions for stateless children based on his experience in other countries which face the same problem, he said one of the issues certain in this region is that many stateless people spend many years in specialised camps for displaced people.
"And many children within this Asian region will definitely grow up in these camps and spend their formative years, marginalised from the mainstream society and have no prospects outside the camp," he said.
"I think it is really important that children are able in whatever country they find themselves to be more integrated into the mainstream society, he added.
"When children live on the edge, when they are being marginalised, it becomes more difficult for them to access some of developmental needs such as education, right to family rights, meaningful employment or economic viability," he said.
Through our work with Unicef the issue of stateless children is an important priority in some countries more than other, he said, adding Unicef advocates the rights of all children to basic primary needs and rights in terms of education and so on.
Nevertheless, Unicef and child organisations in Malaysia do work with the government to look at structures to ensure basic rights for all children, including stateless children and children who are entitled to claim Malaysian citizenship.
Guy Thompstone, Director of the Child Frontiers which is currently working with Unicef in Indonesia and Malaysia to conduct national assessments of the child and family welfare systems, said this when met at the Unicef media workshop on child protection held at the Promenade Hotel, Thursday.
"Any children around the world have a set of inherent rights to which they would be able to claimÉthat goes for any child regardless of nationality, birth, citizenship, ethnic and origin, every single child has rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that they should be able to claim," he said.
Saying the issue of children without documents that may actually be legally stateless is an issue also faced by many other countries, he said, Unicef for example, often works in many countries and in collaboration with UNHCR on this particular issue.
"In a situation of a conflict where children have been displaced often with their families maybe to a third world country or internally displaced within their own country," Thompstone said.
That statelessness really means that the child cannot prove his/her citizenship in any particular country, he added, saying this leaves many such children around the world vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation and abusive situations.
"It often means they are not able to access the basic primary rights to education, health services, the rights to remain with their families and eventually cannot enjoy all the rights under the CRC as they deserve," he said.
On solutions for stateless children based on his experience in other countries which face the same problem, he said one of the issues certain in this region is that many stateless people spend many years in specialised camps for displaced people.
"And many children within this Asian region will definitely grow up in these camps and spend their formative years, marginalised from the mainstream society and have no prospects outside the camp," he said.
"I think it is really important that children are able in whatever country they find themselves to be more integrated into the mainstream society, he added.
"When children live on the edge, when they are being marginalised, it becomes more difficult for them to access some of developmental needs such as education, right to family rights, meaningful employment or economic viability," he said.
Through our work with Unicef the issue of stateless children is an important priority in some countries more than other, he said, adding Unicef advocates the rights of all children to basic primary needs and rights in terms of education and so on.
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