What is the main problem the project is seeking to address? Thailand has made significant commitments to reduce statelessness however despite policy progress hundreds of thousands remain stateless due to implementation gaps, lack of awareness and legal support at the local level which hinder progress especially in rural areas particularly among the hill tribes, ethnic minorities and descendants of refugees who are largely found in the border provinces between Thailand and Myanmar of Tak, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chaing Rai. In recent past a large number of cases have been considered for review with many being rejected owing to documentation gaps, clerical error and in many instances the lack of general awareness of the application process and the eligibility under different categories of applications. With many impacted communities being in remote hard to reach locations, the project will work to provide mobile outreach units to bring the application services closer to them and were necessary vulnerable individuals who may need to be aided to travel will be assisted. Since 2015 the number of actors has reduced leaving the stateless communities to advocate for themselves. ADRA seeks to better equip the community organizations more often than not led by stateless people to be able to better support themselves in advocating and processing their claim to nationality and citizenship.

What is the main change the project seeks to achieve? Through legal aid and paralegal training for community volunteers and stateless led entities, awareness campaigns in villages and communities on nationality rights, laws, different pathways and application procedures for legal status determination, communities will be better informed where individuals are also able to individually initiate the application process. It is further envisioned that at least 10% of those trained will be able to independently start their own application processes. On demand review meetings with local officials and civil society on progress made to submitting applications for consideration allowing for dialogue on challenges and finding a common approach towards resolving statelessness. The civil society will be empowered to advocate for greater engagement by the Thai authority at the district level. With increased capacity of civil society and greater collaboration of different stakeholders, the application services will be brought closer to the affected communities. The use of mobile legal clinics will enable greater reach particularly in the more remote areas, by bringing the services to the communities where travel is prohibited due to the civil status of stateless individuals. The project will spread the support to other regions of the country which have not received much support yet have significantly high populations of impacted communities. Collectively this will contribute towards the goal of reducing the number of stateless individuals in Thailand.

Who are the key partners? Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), a Global Alliance member will implement the project by working with the Royal Thai Government which is a member of the Global Alliance. Other stakeholders that will be included in the project are civil society members working on statelessness, particularly stateless led entities (but not limited to this) working on nationality and legal identity.

Who is the target population for this project? PrimaryStateless individuals, community-based organizations (grassroot) led by stateless persons

Funding and costs What is the total cost of this project?140,000 USD