Ghanaian musician and Someone Loves Me Hit-maker eShun, has revealed that there are people in Ghana who are stateless. She disclosed this during an interview on Accra Based Radio Station Rainbow FM with Sokohemaa.
eShun who is also a UNHCR High-Level Supporter stated, “the number of stateless persons or persons at risk of statelessness is unknown because as a country we have not seen the need to do that so we don’t have any of data. But from research that the UNHCR Ghana conducted, there are people in Ghana who are stateless or at risk of being stateless”.
She continued to narrate an incident where a woman born to Ghanaian parents and who has lived in the nation all her life, had been denied the right to a birth certificate because officials at the Registry claimed she is not a Ghanaian. “She looks like a Fulani and for reasons unknown to me, Fulanis are not Ghanaians. Birth registration is not something we take really seriously in Ghana despite the existence of a free registration policy before a child reaches one year old. One of the major reasons why statelessness has not been solved is because of lack of awareness of the problem.’’, the Akyia Hit-maker eShun added.
Statelessness is a situation whereby an individual residing in a state is denied all the privileges and rights given to its citizens because he or she has no documents to prove that he or she is a citizen. These individuals are typically in this situation because they have difficulties proving they possess links to the State they reside in. This is due to, for instance, the lack of birth registration and personal documentation that traces the individuals’ place of origin, and can confirm their identity.
Populations without birth certificates, abandoned children, undocumented stranded migrants, individuals living in areas of political instability and border disputes, constitute some of the major groups of people at risk of statelessness in West Africa.
“If you are Stateless, you can’t go to school, you are denied quality health care, you can’t even marry. This is not right. It needs to end and that is why I am lending my full support to ending it by 2024.” eShun concluded.
As part of eShun’s support to End Statelessness, she composed and performed a song to help in creating awareness of the problem titled “I Belong”
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eShun launched this week the video for her fast trending song Clap For Yourself which is enjoying massive views on Youtube.
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Written By: Nadia Addo
