The Human Rights of Stateless Persons

Abstract

By exploring statelessness through legal, theoretical, and practical lenses, this article presents a broad examination of the human rights of stateless persons. The article delineates the rights of stateless persons as enunciated in various human rights instruments; presents the mechanisms of, and paths to, statelessness; illustrates the practical struggles of stateless persons by highlighting the plights of various stateless populations; examines how the problem of statelessness is being addressed; and considers the complex political and regional forces affecting policies towards stateless persons. The article concludes with recommendations regarding remedies and solutions for statelessness.

Identifiable Challenges as Global Complexities

“…In general, stateless groups are not prioritised in social assistance programmes and are further disadvantaged as a result of aid policies that do not succeed in reaching them. Third, and related to the last point, there is an inherent problem in the recourse to international law as a means of preventing human rights violations by states (Weissbrodt & Collins, 2006). It is a long recognised norm of international law that states have the sovereign right to determine how nationality, and hence citizenship, is acquired (Batchelor, 2006;Baines, 2017).…”

“…Statelessness, in a strictly legal sense, describes people who are not considered nationals and are unrecognized by any state (Weissbrodt & Collins, 2006)): they are either migrants, refugees or individuals who have never left the country where they were born. Although statelessness is prohibited under international law, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently estimated that there may be as many as 10 million stateless people in the world (UNHCR, 2014), half of them women.…”

“…Although statelessness is prohibited under international law, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently estimated that there may be as many as 10 million stateless people in the world (UNHCR, 2014), half of them women. The existence of stateless populations challenges some of the central tenets of international law and the human rights discourse that has developed over the past sixty years (Weissbrodt & Collins, 2006)). Most importantly, the concept of statelessness is at odds with the right to nationality, which is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.…”

“…Statelessness is also linked with high poverty rates, depression, and feelings of hopelessness exploited by traffickers (Oram et al, 2017). Also, due to the lack of opportunity and insecurity caused by gender-discriminatory nationality laws, some families view early marriage as a route to greater security for their daughters, who can access citizenship and therefore legal status through their husbands (Weissbrodt & Collins, 2006). Conversely, when child marriage occurs in countries that prohibit the practice, those marriages often go unregistered (Milbrandt, 2011).…”

Untangling liberal democracy from territoriality: from ethnic/civic to ethnic/territorial nationalism

“…Since then, authors, accordingly, have stressed civic nationalism's connection to the liberal‐democratic development (Bereketeab : 314; Geddes & Niessen : 4; Ignatieff ) or national membership based on territory (Weissbrodt & Collins : 247, 253–6). The combination of the two factors has been contrasted to ethnic nationalism.…”