Proposition 53K3542

Projet de loi portant assentiment à la Convention des Nations unies sur la réduction des cas d'apatridie, fait à New York le 30 août 1961.

General information ¶

Submitted by

The Senate

Submission date

March 21, 2014

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

UN convention international agreement stateless person

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR

Abstained from voting

VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Alexandra Colen (VB) voted to adopt.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

April 23, 2014 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I refer to the written report, which is available at the banks.

On behalf of my group, I would like to give the following explanation.

The present draft law is the ratification of a United Nations Convention for the Reduction of Statelessness, made in New York on 30 August 1961. Yes, you hear it right, that treaty dates from 1961. You may be wondering why we are only now entering that treaty. Well, at the foundation lies its fiftyth anniversary, and the initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to promote among the states that had not yet joined the convention. Our Parliament held a study day on this subject on 6 February 2013, where the report Mapping Statelessness in Belgium was presented and the situation in our country was mapped.

On April 9, a few weeks ago, the Committee on Migration of the Council of Europe gave an overview of all the countries that are members of the Council of Europe but have not yet approved or ratified that treaty. As a member of the Belgian delegation of the Council of Europe, and present in that committee, it is astonishing to have to conclude that we are one of the few countries of the broad area of the Council of Europe that have not yet ratified that treaty. Belgium is one of the few countries that have not yet done what is appropriate on the international level regarding statelessness. However, the adoption of this bill on our legislation does not actually have shocking consequences. Our nationality legislation actually already meets the requirements of the convention and also the ratio legis of the legislation corresponds to what the United Nations expects of us, namely to avoid that children born in Belgium can be born stateless.

There is also no significant increase in the number of stateless persons in Belgium. In the Commission in Strasbourg, we received recent figures from the United Nations on our country. There was an increase of 148 stateless persons in 2013. It is therefore primarily about recognition by the courts that apply the 1954 convention and give people the status of stateless.

Colleagues, at the end of this parliamentary legislature, I reviewed again what we have achieved in our Committee on Foreign Relations. I have heard a lot of interesting debates, especially on the initiative of Chamber Members. There were discussed current problems that occur in the world and which we really need to attract ourselves. I also especially appreciated the initiative of the Minister to empty the closet. After all, we were confronted with numerous treaties that had long been in the cabinet of Foreign Affairs. The present treaty is one of them.

During my first legislature, I was especially surprised that many, especially older, politicians have their mouths full about the position of Belgium on the world map, while they have actually not done what is appropriate on the international treaty law level.

Dear colleagues, we will support this bill, which is obvious. I hope, however, that the voter will give me the opportunity to sit again in the Parliament in the next legislature, that the Foreign Affairs closet will finally be empty and that we will be up to date.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to emphasize that we are trying to develop an important work of updating treaties; I am also grateful to the House and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, as well as the two plenary assemblies, for working on this as well.

I acknowledge that, for this text, it was time, even though we had to find in 2013 that Belgian legislation did not need to be adapted to meet its international obligations in this area. The fact of ratifying the treaty itself will not change much to our situation; however, it was important to do so.

We will have to continue on the path of this day when 26 treaties will be submitted to the House’s approval.

I thank you for your comment. We have been trying to do this for two years. There are many old texts. It is useful to do that. We must try to avoid delays in the adoption of treaties.

I totally agree.