Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Minorities Fellowship Programme Kristina Arakelova, Fellow November 29, 2018 To the Secretariat of the 11th UN Forum on Minority Issues Statement and Recommendations Item 3. Statelessness resulting from conflicts, forced population movements and migration affecting minorities: main challenges and possible solutions Honorable Chairperson, Dear Colleagues, My name is Kristina Arakelova. I represent Armenian minority of Georgia. Also, I am 2018 OHCHR Fellow of the Minority Fellowship Programme. The Ministry of Justice of Georgia, amended the migration policy, as a result of which, In 2015 aroud 3000 ethnic Armenians lost their Georgian citizenship. Poor economic conditions, social inequality and high unemployment in the regions of Georgia forced many citizens of Georgia particularly ethnic Armenians to leave Georgian territory, to acquire Armenian citizenship and to move abroad to seek seasonal employment. But double citizenship in compliance with the Georgian legislation it is automatically meant losing Georgian citizenship. Those people who have lost Georgian passports had to re-apply for Georgian citizenship. But in order to obtain it, they are required to pass exams of the official state language and here we are challenged with another issue. Georgia implements many programmes to provide minority with the knowledge of the state language but still it’s not enough. Especially for a people over 30. Lack of knowledge of state language, lack of integration as well as bad economic conditions result in the situation when Georgian Armenians find themselves in the risk of stateless position. I believe, my country, Georgia is able to put efforts into bringing our people back to Georgia. Kristina Arakelova OHCHR Minority Kristiarakelova@gmail.com