Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Puong, 36, right, at the house of her mother Mai Thi Lieu, 58. Phuong married a Taiwanese man but was abandoned by her husband because she gave birth to two daughters instead of sons. At the present she has neither Vietnamese nor Taiwanese citizenship. Photo:UNHCR/C. Doan 2007

Press release

Monday, 3 November 2008

Finland joins Conventions on Nationality

Stockholm - On 5 November the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness will come into force in Finland. On 1 December  Finland also joins the European Convention on Nationality from 1997. The objectives of the Conventions are to reduce and prevent statelessness.

Hans ten Feld , Regional Representative for UNHCR in the Baltic and Nordic Countries says Finland’s joining is a significant step from an international point of view.
- We welcome Finland’s accession to these important conventions on nationality. The more countries that are part of them, the easier it will be to find solutions to statelessness problems worldwide.

Finland is the 35th nation to join the 1961 Convention, and the first country to do so this year. The Finnish accession is an important signal to the world. All the Nordic countries except for Iceland have joined the 1961 Convention and all, except Norway, have joined the European Convention on Nationality. Finland already acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the legal Status of Stateless Persons 40 years ago, in 1968.

The Finnish legislation on nationality was reviewed in 2003, with the international treaties in mind. This means that Finnish legislation already has been in line with the Conventions since then. It is, for example, impossible to lose your Finnish nationality if statelessness would be the consequence. A child born on Finnish territory will always receive Finnish nationality, regardless of the parents’ nationalities.

There are approximately 12 million stateless persons in the world, and their destiny often is to live in the outskirts of society, without entitlement to health care and education or the right to free movement.

Apart from refugees the UNHCR mandate covers stateless persons.