STATELESSNESS

Statelessness is a legal concept describing the lack of any nationality. It is the absence of a
recognized link between an individual and any state.
A de jure stateless person is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under
the operation of its law."
[1]

A de facto stateless person is someone who is outside the country of his or her nationality and is
unable or, for valid reasons, unwilling to avail him- or herself of the protection of that
country.
[2]
This can be a result of persecution, in which case there is an overlap with the definition
of a refugee, but it can also be a consequence of lack of diplomatic relations between the state of
nationality and the state of residence.
Some de jure stateless persons are also refugees although not all refugees are de jure stateless,
and not all de jure stateless persons are refugees. Many stateless persons have never crossed
an international border.
Stateless person
A stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the
operation of its law.
[3]
In other words, a stateless person has no citizenship or nationality. As a
matter of international law, citizenship and nationality are congruous, although there may be
differences between the two concepts in domestic law.
The causes of statelessness around the world are numerous.
[4]
In most cases, there is an
underlying issue of discrimination usually on the basis of race or ethnicity, religion, or sex. In
many cases, statelessness affects entire minority populations that have never been recognized
as nationals of the state where they are habitually resident. Statelessness caused in part or whole
by ethnic discrimination is often handed down from one generation to the next.
Conflict of nationality laws can be another cause of statelessness. Nationality is usually acquired
through one of two modes: jus soli or jus sanguinis. Jus soli denotes a regime by which
nationality is acquired through birth on the territory of the state. This is common in the Americas.
Jus sanguinis on the other hand is a regime by which nationality is acquired from birth through
descent usually through a parent who is a national. Today, many states apply a combination of
the two systems.
Although many states allow for acquisition of nationality through parental descent irrespective of
where the child is born, many still do not allow their female citizens to confer nationality to their
children.
[5]
This may result in statelessness where the father is stateless, unknown, or otherwise
unable to confer nationality. There have however been recent changes in favor of gender
neutrality in nationality laws in some parts of the world. Moreover, the Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
[6]
prohibits sex discrimination in
conferral of nationality.
An important measure to avoid statelessness at birth is to provide nationality to children born on
the territory who would otherwise be stateless. This norm is stipulated in the 1961 Convention on
the Reduction of Statelessness.
[7]
It also appears in several regional human rights treaties,
including the American Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Nationality,
and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. This norm is implicit in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
[8]

In some cases, statelessness is a consequence of state succession.
[9]
Recent history has shown
that some people have become stateless when their state of nationality ceased to exist, or when
the territory on which they live came under the control of another state. This was the case when
theSoviet Union disintegrated, and also in the cases of Yugoslavia and Ethiopia.
In rare cases, individuals may become stateless when renouncing their citizenship (e.g. World
CitizenGarry Davis). However, many states do not allow citizens to renounce their nationality
unless they acquire another one. However, consular officials are unlikely to be familiar with all
citizenship laws of all countries, so there may still be situations where renunciation leads to
statelessness.
A final cause of statelessness are non-state territories. As per the definition of a stateless person,
only states can have nationals. As a result, people who are citizens of non-state territories are
stateless. This includes, for instance, occupied territories where statehood has ceased to exist or
never emerged in the first place. The Palestinian Occupied Territories is one example, but
alsoWestern Sahara, Northern Cyprus, and Republic of China (Taiwan) may be considered as
such, depending on the interpretation of statehood and sovereignty.
While statelessness has existed for several centuries, the international community has only been
concerned with its eradication since the mid-1900s. In 1954 the United Nations adopted the
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which provides a framework for protection
of stateless persons. Seven years later, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
was adopted, which contains provisions to prevent and reduce statelessness.
In addition, a range of regional and international human rights treaties guarantee a right to
nationality, with special protections for certain groups including stateless persons. For examples,
states bound by the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are obligated to ensure that
every child acquires a nationality.
[10]
The Convention requires states to implement this provision in
particular where the child would otherwise be stateless, and in a manner that is in the best
interests of the child. It is always in the best interests of the child to have a nationality.
Not holding proof of nationality or being undocumented is not the same as being stateless.
However, lack of key identity documents such as a birth certificate can lead to a risk of
statelessness. Many millions of people live their entire lives without documents, without their
nationality ever being questioned. Two factors are of particular importance: a. is the nationality in
question acquired automatically or through some form of registration; and, b. has the person ever
been denied documents on the basis that he or she is not a national. If nationality is acquired
automatically, then the person is a national regardless of documentation status (although in
practice the person may face problems accessing certain rights and services not because he or
she is stateless but because he or she is undocumented). If registration is required then the
person is not a national until that has been completed. As a practical matter, the longer a person
is undocumented, the greater the likelihood that he or she will end up in a situation where no
state recognizes him or her as a national.
As per the definition of a stateless person, whether someone is statelessness is ultimately a
matter of the viewpoint of the state with respect to the individual or a group of people. In some
cases the state makes its view clear and explicit. In other cases the viewpoint of the states is
harder to discern. In those cases one may need to rely on prima facie evidence of the view of the
state, which in turn may give rise to a presumption of statelessness.
[11]

History
Prior to World War II
The status of slaves and inhabitants of conquered territories in the Greco-Roman world
of antiquity is in some ways analogous to contemporary statelessness. In antiquity,
"statelessness" could be seen to affect captive and subject populations denied full citizenship
(see Roman Citizen) including those enslavedfor instance, conquered populations excluded
from Roman citizenship such as the Gaulsimmediately following the Gallic Wars,
or Israelites under Babylonian captivity.
Some characteristics of statelessness could be observed amongst apostates and slaves in
Islamic society, the former being persons shunned for rejecting their religious birth identity, the
latter being persons separated from that identity and subsumed into an underclass role.
Statelessness used to characterize the existence of Roma People whose traditional nomadic
lifestyles meant that they traveled across lands claimed by others.
The Office international Nansen pour les rfugis was an international organization of the League
of Nations in charge of refugees from 1930 to 1939. It received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938.
TheirNansen passports, designed in 1922 by founder Fridtjof Nansen, were internationally
recognizedidentity cards issued to stateless refugees. In 1942 they were honored by
governments in 52 countries.
After World War II
The United Nations (UN) was set up in 1945, right after the end of World War II. From the very
start, the UN had to deal with the mass atrocities of the war, not least huge refugee populations
across Europe.
To address the nationality and legal status issues of refugees in Europe, the Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN requested the Secretary-General to carry out a study of
statelessness in 1948. The ECOSOC appointed a Committee on Refugees and Stateless
Persons to draft a convention that would address the problems faced by refugees and stateless
persons, including their legal status. A treaty on refugees was prepared with a draft protocol
addressing the status of stateless persons. However, as International Refugee Organization the
predecessor to the UN High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) was in the process of being
dissolved, the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees was adopted without inclusion
of the Protocol addressing statelessness.
Three years prior to the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights(UDHR) was adopted. UDHR provides both for a right to asylum (article 14) and a right to
nationality (article 15). The UDHR also expressly prohibited arbitrary deprivation of nationality,
something which had affected many of the war-time refugees.
In 1949, the International Law Commission included the topic "Nationality, including
statelessness" in its list of topics of international law provisionally selected for codification. At the
behest of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1950, that item was given priority.
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was done on 28 July 1951, later attracting the
signatures of 145 state parties as of late January 2005.
[12]

The International Law Commission at its fifth session in 1953 produced both a Draft Convention
on theElimination of Future Statelessness, and a Draft Convention on the Reduction of Future
Statelessness. ECOSOC approved both drafts.
Following these developments in both human rights law and refugee law, the UN eventually
adopted in 1954 the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
The 1954 Statelessness Status Convention provided a definition of a stateless person (which has
since become part of customary international law, according to the International Law
Commission), and sets out a number of rights that stateless persons should enjoy. The
Statelessness Status Convention thus became the basis for an international protection regime for
stateless persons.
Seven years later only one year after the 1954 Convention entered into force the UN adopted
another convention on statelessness, namely the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness.


German 1954 Convention Travel Document
Statelessness since 1961
The Statelessness Reduction Convention was adopted in 1961 and entered into force in 1975. It
provides a number of standards regarding acquisition and loss of nationality (including automatic
loss, renunciation, and deprivation of nationality). It also requests the UN to establish a mandate
for the reduction of statelessness.
In 1974, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) requested UNHCR to undertake the functions
foreseen under the Statelessness Reduction Convention.
On 13 December 1975, the 1961 Convention entered into force. To date, the number of states
parties is relatively low. As of June 2011, only 38 states had ratified the Convention (compared to
66 states parties to the 1954 Statelessness Status Convention).
Starting in 1994, the UNHCR Executive Committee (ExCom) and the UNGA requested UNHCR
to broaden its activities concerning statelessness to include all states.
[13]

[14]
In 1996 UNHCR was
asked by the UNGA to actively promote accessions to the 1954 and the 1961 conventions, as
well as to provide relevant technical and advisory services pertaining to the preparation and
implementation of nationality legislation to interested states.
An internal evaluation released in 2001
[15]
suggested that UNHCR had done little to exercise its
mandate on statelessness. Only two individuals were tasked with overseeing work in that area at
UNHCR headquarters, though some field officers had been trained to address the issue. The
evaluation also noted that there was no dedicated budget line. Concerned organisations such as
theOpen Society Justice Initiative and Refugees International have advocated for more human
and financial resources to be dedicated to statelessness within UNHCR.
In 2004, ExCom invited UNHCR to pay particular attention to situations of protracted
statelessness and explore with states measures that would ameliorate the situations and bring
them to an end.
In 2006, ExCom provided UNHCR with more specific guidance on how to implement its mandate
on statelessness. The Conclusion on the Identification, Prevention and Reduction of
Statelessness and the Protection of Stateless Persons
[16]
requires UNHCR to work with
governments, other UN agencies, and civil society to address this problem. UNHCRs activities
are currently categorized as identification, prevention, reduction, and protection.
UNHCR has achieved some success in launching campaigns to prevent and reduce
statelessness among formerly deported peoples in Crimea, Ukraine (Armenians, Crimean Tatars,
Germans, and Greeks who were deported en masse at the close of World War II). Another
success has been the naturalization of Tajik refugees in Kyrgyzstan, as well as the participation in
citizenship campaigns enabling 300,000 Estate Tamils to acquire citizenship of Sri Lanka.
UNHCR also assisted the Czech Republic to overcome the large number of stateless persons
created when it separated from Slovakia.
At the beginning of 2006 the UNHCR claimed to have 'on its books' 2.4 million stateless persons,
and made an estimate of 11 million as the size of the stateless population worldwide. In 2011, the
estimation increased to 12 million.
[17]
UNHCR figures do not include stateless refugees and
stateless Palestinians under UNRWA's mandate.
While the two conventions on statelessness constitute the primary international framework for
protection of stateless persons and reduction of statelessness, there are also regional
instruments of great importance. The 1997 European Convention on Nationality, for example, has
contributed to protecting the rights of stateless persons, and provides standards for reduction of
statelessness in the Council of Europe region. That document underlines the need of every
person to have a nationality, and seeks to clarify the rights and responsibilities of states in
ensuring individual access to a nationality.
Statelessness of some magnitude exists in every country of the world. Today, some of the largest
populations of stateless persons are found in Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cte
d'Ivoire,Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican
Republic, Estonia, Iraq, India, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia,Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Myanmar, N
epal, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Thailand.
Palestinians arguably comprise the largest stateless population in the world. Abbas Shiblak
estimates that over half of the Palestinian people in the world are stateless.
Cases of statelessness
Bidoon in Kuwait
Bidoon means without in Arabic, indicating that this group estimated to range between
90,000 and 180,000 lives without nationality. Not considered as nationals by Kuwait or any
other state,bidoon are stateless. While Kuwaiti nationals enjoy a large number benefits and
subsidies, stateless people in this small but very wealthy country live in slum-like settlements on
the outskirts of its cities, where they suffer numerous human rights violations.
Many bidoon failed to acquire nationality at independence. Some did not qualify under the law
in other words they were not able to show residential ties to Kuwait prior to 1920. Othersand
this was a greater problem at the timedid not quite appreciate the importance of having a
nationality and failed to register as citizens.
In the mid-1980s, the situation for bidoon began to rapidly deteriorate. The Nationality Act was
amended several times between 1960 and 1985, making access to nationality increasingly
difficult. For the first time, in 1986 the government began to apply the Alien Residence Act
to bidoon, effectively stripping them of most of the rights they had enjoyed since independence
and re-classifying them as illegal residents. Basic rights such as issuance of key documents
including birth, marriage and death certificateswere denied, which in turn had a whole range of
negative consequences. Pilgrimage to Mecca the Hajj also became difficult for bidoon. Most
were only allowed to leave Kuwait if they agreed not to return. To this day, religious travel still
poses a major problem to many bidoon, and bribes are becoming lucrative opportunities for
border officials and travel companies.
By the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, bidoon in Kuwait were increasingly
living in poverty. They had been dismissed from their jobs in large numbers, their children were
no longer allowed to attend public schools, and health care had become more or less
inaccessible.
After liberation, bidoon who were still employed in the public sector were dismissed retroactively
from the date of the invasion. The number of deportation orders also increased significantly,
although many were not carried out since there was no country to which the bidoon could be
deported. Most deportation orders were administrative orders which meant that no access to
judicial review was available.
In year 2000, the situation was briefly looking up for bidoon. Act 22 of 2000 an amendment to
the Nationality Act in theory provided a greater opportunity for bidoon to naturalize, the
conditions were so strict that few qualified. Also, an annual cap on naturalizations was introduced,
but Kuwait has rarely if ever used the full quota.
In 2003 allegedly some 5,500 bidoon were permitted to apply for nationality and a smaller number
some 1,600 were naturalized. But the process stagnated and did not turn into the kind of
reform many had hoped for. A few years later, in 2006, the National Assembly created a
committee to deal with the bidoon issue, but for the most part it was ineffective. Another
government body was set up in 2011 to deal with the issue, but it too has so far only achieved
limited progress.
In 2011, the first bidoon demonstrations for nationality rights took place on February 18. Afraid of
the protest spiraling out of control the government quickly promised some reforms, including
access to a few basic rights for bidoon. On March 11, 2011, bidoon took to the streets again. The
government responded with force, advancing with armored vehicles and riot police, employing
tear gas and flares to break up crowds. It was reported that 140 bidoon were detained without
charge.
[18]

Different classes of nationality
Many countries have several different "classes" of nationals under their domestic law. In some
cases - though not all - this can lead to statelessness or risk of statelessness.
Cases of statelessness have arisen due to different classes in British nationality law which led to
situations where people were considered British subjects but not nationals, or where people held
aBritish passport without right of abode in the United Kingdom. People who have no other
citizenship in any other country, and simultaneously lacked a right to reside in the United
Kingdom are possibly stateless
[citation needed]
. Examples of this include so-called British Protected
Persons, who are not considered British nationals. People in Hong Kong who did not acquire
nationality in the People's Republic of China after the turnover in 1997 acquired British National
(Overseas) status, which is less than full citizenship but probably does not amount to
statelessness. British nationals (irrespective of the class of nationality) who reside abroad but do
not enjoy protection by the British government arede facto stateless.
Many situations where people were at risk of statelessness due to the different classes of British
nationality were resolved after 30 April 2003, when the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act
2002came into force. As a result of this Act, the United Kingdom gave most British subjects
without any other citizenship the right to register as full British citizens. However, cases still exist
where people have not been able or willing to register as citizens.
Children born abroad to Canadian citizens who were born abroad
Bill C-37 came into effect on 17 April 2009, which changed the rules for Canadian citizenship.
Individuals can now become Canadian citizens by descent only if one of their parents was either
anative-born citizen or a foreign-born but naturalized citizen of Canada. The new law limits
citizenship by descent to one generation born outside Canada. All individuals born outside
Canada but within one generation of the native-born or naturalized citizen parent are
automatically recognized as Canadian citizens. The second generation born abroad, however,
are not citizens of Canada at birth. Such an individual might even be stateless if he or she has no
claim to any other citizenship.
Since the passage of Bill C-37, this situation has already occurred at least twice. In one situation,
Rachel Chandler was born in China to a father who is a Canadian citizen born in Libya and a
mother who is a Chinese citizen. Due to the nationality laws of Canada and China, she was not
eligible for citizenship of either country and was born stateless.
[19]
Rachel Chandler now holds
Irish citizenship. This was possible because her paternal grandfather was Irish born.
[20]
Another
situation occurred to Chlo Goldring who was born in Belgium to a Canadian father born in
Bermuda and an Algerian mother. Due to the nationality laws of Belgium, Canada and Algeria,
she was not eligible for citizenship of any of those countries and was born stateless.
[21]
Chlo
Goldring is now a Canadian citizen.
[22]

Palestinians
Even though Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza strip were issued a Palestinian
passport according to the Oslo Accords, many countries (for instance Germany) still do not
recognize their citizenship.
As a matter of international law, only states can have nationals and the nationality status of many
Palestinians therefore depends on whether or not Palestine is a state - some countries recognize
Palestinian statehood, others do not.
Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem have automatic permanent resident status in Israel and
may apply for citizenship. In 1967, Israel offered to make citizenship automatic, but the offer was
rejected by Arab leaders. Between 1967 and 2007, only 12,000 of these 250,000 Palestinians
applied for Israeli citizenship.
[23]

[24]
Those who do not are therefore generally stateless.
See also: History of Palestinian Nationality
Brunei
There is a large number of stateless permanent residents in Brunei. Most of these residents have
lived on Brunei soil for generations, but Brunei nationality is determined by applying the policy
of Jus sanguinis; right to hold nationality only by blood ties. However, the Government of Brunei
has made obtaining citizenship possible, albeit difficult, for stateless people who have inhabited
Brunei for many generations. The requirements to attain Brunei citizenship include passing
rigorous tests in Malay culture, customs and language. Stateless permanent residents of Brunei
are given International Certificates of Identity, which allow them to travel overseas. The majority
of Brunei's Chinese are permanent residents. A holder of an International Certificate of Identity
can enter Germany andHungary visa-free for a maximum of 90 days within a 180 day period. In
the case of Germany, in theory, in order to benefit from the visa exemption, the ICI must be
issued under the terms of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and
contain an authorisation to return to Brunei which has a sufficiently long period of validity.
However, because Brunei is not a signatory to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons, holders of an ICI do not qualify for the visa exemption to Germany. Holders of
an ICI can still benefit from the visa exemption to Hungary, since the Hungarian Government
does not require the ICI to be issued under the terms of the 1954 Convention Relating to the
Status of Stateless Persons.
Brunei Darussalam is a signatory to the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child whereby
Principle 3 states that:
"The child shall be entitled from his birth to a name and a nationality."
However, Brunei Darussalam does not currently follow the guidelines of the said 1959
Convention. There is a recent announcement from His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei regarding
plans to expedite the granting of citizenship to stateless persons in Brunei.
[25]
However, it is
unclear as to what those plans are or whether or not the citizenship exam is still required.
Juan Mari Brs
Main article: Juan Mari Brs
In 1994, Juan Mari Brs, a Puerto Rican lawyer and political historian, renounced his US
citizenship before a consular agent in the US Embassy of Venezuela. In December 1995, his
denaturalization was confirmed by the US Department of State: Mari Bras was no longer a US
citizen. That same month, he requested that the Puerto Rican State Department furnish him with
proof of his Puerto Rican citizenship. This request involved more than just a bureaucratic
formality, therefore testing the self-determination of Puerto Rico by becoming the first Puerto
Rican citizen that was not also an American citizen.
[26]

Mari Brs claimed that, as a Puerto Rican national born and raised in Puerto Rico, he was clearly
a Puerto Rican citizen and therefore had every right to continue to reside, work and, most
importantly, vote in Puerto Rico. The State Department responded promptly, claiming that Puerto
Rican citizenship does not exist independent of American citizenship. The State Department's
response to Mari Brs stated that Puerto Rican citizenship currently exists only as an equivalent
to residency: Puerto Rican citizens are those US citizens who reside in Puerto Rico. The
Secretary of State
[clarification needed]
agreed, claiming that after a year of residence on the island, any
US citizen can gain Puerto Rican citizenship. On October 25, 2006, he became the first person to
receive a Puerto Rican citizenship certificate from the Puerto Rico State Department.
Hong Kong
Main article: Document of Identity
New immigrants from Mainland China to Hong Kong with one-way permits lose their hukou in
Mainland China. Without any hukou, they have no access to apply for the passport of the
People's Republic of China. Meanwhile, passports of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region are only issued to permanent residents of Hong Kong, a status requiring seven years of
ordinary residence in the territory. These new immigrants, although technically still citizens of the
PRC, are effectively stateless as far as international travel is concerned. They can only travel with
the Documents of Identity (DIs) issued by Hong Kong's Immigration Department.