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Addressing the Risk of Statelessness in Chile: From Strategic Litigation to #Chilereconoce

Following a flawed interpretation of nationality requirements in the Constitution, between 1995 and 2014 the State of Chile denied nationality to at least 4,000 children born in the country, based solely on their parents’ irregular migratory status. As a result, at present many of these children remain at risk of statelessness. In 2015, the Immigration and Refugee Law Clinic of the Diego Portales University (UDP), the Immigration Law Clinic of the Alberto Hurtado University (UAH) School of Law, and the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) responded by forming a partnership designed to address their plight. After a successful litigation under the Supreme Court of Justice, in the year 2016, the National Institute on Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Department of Migration and the Civil Registry joined the above-mentioned organisations to fully address the situation of these children. As a result of this process, 100 children were recognized as Chilean nationals, and administrative changes were brought about so as to ensure the right to a nationality of all people born in the country. This brief describes this process, and some of the challenges that still remain in Chile for the complete eradication of statelessness.

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Uploaded on: Jun 21, 2018
Year Published: 2017


Resource Tags

Resource Type: Practitioner Resources Issues: Citizenship & Identification, Governance, Accountability & Transparency, Legal Aid & Public Interest Law, Policy Advocacy Tool Type: Manuals & Guides Target Population: Stateless Method: Navigating Administrative Processes Languages: English Regions: Chile