Experience in Solving Statelessness and Nationalitylessness in Thailand: Identification, Prevention, Reduction and Protection (PREVENTION Part 1)

A paper for the International Symposium on “Human Rights and Support for the Stateless People around the World: Japan’s Role” held by the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, 26-27 February 2011.

In order to prevent stateless and nationalityless problem, the third experience is an attempt to understand that “What are causes of statelessness and nationalitylessness in Thailand?” 

 

Firstly, we found that the situation, in which people live in remote areas such as those ethnic minorities in highland or Sakai people in the forest or Moken people in the sea, can cause statelessness and nationalitylessness. Due to difficulties to access a district office in towns or in the cities, this may be a big obstacle to register their child after birth or to be in the process of any civil registration.

The prevention is simple. Thailand has arranged mobile civil registration units into such areas to facilitate people who live in remote areas. More, the Ministry of Interior by Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA) provides a ‘One-stop Birth Registration Service’ where civil registrar staffs are stationed inside the hospital to issue birth certificates for newborns. So, these people do not have to register birth of the child again at the district which may be far away. Last example of good practice to prevent statelessness and nationalitylessness is an ‘Online Birth Registration Programme’. The programme, developed by DOPA in collaboration with UNICEF in Thailand and piloted in six hospitals across the country, can immediately link information on the birth of each child in a hospital to the civil registration system. As a result, registrars will be able to identify and track those children who do not yet register and to follow up with their families who might live in remote areas.

 

Secondly, it is associated with uncertainty of the state jurisdiction over individuals in the situation, in which people live in border areas. Most of areas in problem do not have an official boundary yet; they are places of overlapping under sovereignty of two states or more with adjacent contiguous borders, namely Thailand – Myanmar, Thailand Cambodia, or Thailand – Malaysia. Therefore, people in such areas frequently face statelessness or nationalitylessness due to this uncertainty. Saidaeng Kaewtham, for instance, is a villager in Mae Ai District who was born in the overlap area between Thailand and Myanmar called ‘Sob Yon’.

For lasting prevent for this cause, interdisciplinary collaborated from Legal Science, Political Science, Social Science, or even Population Studies is required to develop well-rounded knowledge about border areas between Thailand and neighboring countries and also related issues. And state agencies ought to be a main actor to mobilize such knowledge.

 

The third cause is relevant to the situation, in which people are at risk of persecution and cannot return their homeland. Conclusively, the people at risk of persecution could come across statelessness and nationalitylessness, due to these three situations: first is when they cannot exercise the right to their own nationality in reality; second is when they were revoked from the civil registration system of the country of origin after fleeing; and the last is when they have never been registered into any civil record of the country. Ayu Po Namthep is the most famous refugee case in Thailand who is living outside a temporary shelter. She is a daughter of George Po, a Karen scholar who had a serious political conflict with the military junta of Myanmar at the time. Her family has fled into Thailand since B.E.2502 (1959). Currently, Ayu’s father has already passed away, but Ayu has been living without any nationality as an expert and also a lecturer in musicology in a university in the north of Thailand until now.

Although the word ‘refugee’ as defined under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is never accepted, Thailand has tradition not to force these people to return to places where their lives can be threatened. According to the record about management of refugee population in Thailand, Thailand has a very clear-cut policy dealing with a huge group of refugees in each situation from time to time, but not for an individual. However, refugees living outside a temporary shelter such Ayu Namthep are able to develop her legal status under relevant laws and policies on the issues as such those assimilated immigrants in Thailand.

 

And finally, stateless and nationalityless problems can occur in the situation, in which people are rootless. Rootless people mostly were abandoned from their parents since early childhood. People in this situation cannot search back for their own history such as parents, birth place, or any identification papers. Saengchai Pannakul, for example, was abandoned at a temple in Chiangmai Province when he was so young that he could not remember anything. Until now, he is about 30 years old and it seems impossible for him to trace back his origins.

The only way to troubleshoot rootless problem is to reform relevant law to apply beneficial interpretation for people who have been neglected and found in Thailand with no clue. Then, they can take further step to develop their legal status in Thailand unless these rootless people will fall into vacuum of laws and policies.