There is an estimated 12 million persons across the world who wake up every morning without a country that they can call their own.
This was disclosed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ms. Gogo Hukportie, at the two-day 2011 ECOWAS Ambassadors on stateless and displaced people, which began in Abuja yesterday.
Hukportie said that apart from the stateless, there are more than 40 million people across the world, who are displaced due to wars and natural disasters, or are persecuted because of race, political opinion, religion, tribe and others.
She noted that without a proper legal framework, durable solutions cannot be found to address this problem.
Hukportie, thus called on representatives of the participating countries to advocate and encourage the signing of the three conventions relating to stateless and displaced people. The three conventions are: the 1954 Convention relating to the status of stateless persons; the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the African Union Convention of the Protection and Assistance of internally Displaced Persons in Africa, also known as the Kampala Convention.