JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND POLICY ISSUE - VOL. 2 NO. 2 (2022) APRIL- JUNE Available online at: Journal of Social and Policy Issues (pencerah.org) Journal of Social and Policy Issues E-ISSN: 2807-3843 https://doi.org/10.35308/xxxxx Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Some rights reserved The Role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Dealing with Stateless Problems in Malaysia Pristina Widya, Najamuddin Khairur Rijal Program Studi Hubungan Internasional, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, Malang, Jawa Timur ARTICLE INFORMATION ABSTRACT Received: October 08, 2021 Revised: February 19, 2022 Available online: June 15, 2022 This study discusses the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in dealing with stateless problems in Malaysia from 2014-2017. As an international organization, UNHCR deals with stateless issues, namely people who are not considered citizens by any country according to their legal operations. The research method used is descriptive-qualitative. The results found that UNHCR performed its role as an information provider, law enforcer, and policy implementer. As an information provider, UNHCR carries out the #Ibelong campaign and provides information about its partners. As a rule enforcer, UNHCR encourages Malaysia to ratify the stateless convention and provide legal assistance. As a policy implementer, UNHCR carries out mapping projects and provides funding for stateless programs. KEYWORDS Election, Election System, Open List Representation CORRESPONDENCE Name: Najamuddin Khairur Rijal E-mail: najamuddin@umm.ac.id INTRODUCTION A stateless person is a person who is not considered a citizen by any country according to its legal operations. Stateless does not have self-identity, as evidenced by not having a valid official document from a country concerned. In 2014 there were 3.5 million stateless persons from 77 countries (UNHCR, 2014b). The number of stateless persons worldwide reaches ten million, this is based on estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is difficult to estimate the true number because, unlike refugees, stateless persons in most countries are unregistered, not granted legal status, and are not documented. One country that has a problem with statelessness is Malaysia. Malaysia is known as a country that depends on millions of migrant workers. These migrant workers are largely believed to be in the country illegally, either entering without the proper documents or staying on after expiry and for generations (Peter, 2020). However, most stateless persons in Malaysia are not foreigners or migrant workers (Paulsen, 2019). They are people who have lived a long time and most of them were born in Malaysia. These people could not prove their citizenship because they did not have documents, even though they were originally Malaysians. When Malaysia became independent in 1957, they did not immediately register themselves as citizens, so this stateless problem continued for generations. Based on data from UNHCR's Global Trends, stateless persons in Malaysia in 2014 were estimated at 40,000 people. After the collaboration with local Malaysian NGOs, UNHCR was able to identify the number of stateless, namely in 2015 there were 11,689 individuals, in 2016 there were 10,931 individuals and in 2017 there were 10,068 individuals (UNHCR, 2014b). This number only includes the Indian Tamil community in western Malaysia, while for eastern Malaysia it is unknown. The citizenship law in Malaysia is one of the barriers for stateless persons. Malaysia has the legal principle of jus sanguinis, which means that the acquisition of citizenship is determined by lineage or family (Bonasir, 2020). Whereas stateless in Malaysia mostly have limited access to information about their lineage and background. Under the Malaysian Constitution, any person born in Malaysia who is not born as a citizen of another country and who does not acquire another nationality within one year after birth is a Malaysian citizen by law. But in some cases, this rule does not apply, Malaysia has a high standard of proof for stateless (Leong, 2020). In addition, Malaysia's National Registration Department has a procedure that requires the presence of two witnesses, who are at least 15 years older than the subject for late birth registration (Sinapan, 2020). Those born in Malaysia before 1957 remain stateless because they cannot find witnesses to support their application. They must show that the witness is older than the applicant, meaning they are over 64 at least if they were one year old at the time. To deal with the stateless in Malaysia, the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is needed. The General Assembly of the United Nations has given a mandate to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to protect and guarantee the rights of the stateless person. Stateless persons are one of the groups that are of concern to UNHCR. UNHCR's mandate is based on a series of General Assembly Resolutions, notably Resolutions 50/152 of 1995 and 61/137 of 2006 which entrusted UNHCR with responsibility for stateless issues (UNHCR, 2014a). Given the decline in the number of stateless in Malaysia from 2014 to 2017, as well as the #Ibelong campaign program to end stateless from UNHCR which began in 2014, the purpose of this study is to find out how the role of UNHCR in dealing with