Statelessness

A stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any country. In some cases, they are not legally recognised as a citizen by any country (a situation known as de jure statelessness). In other cases, a person may possess a legal nationality but cannot in practice exercise their citizenship rights (known as de facto statelessness).

Causes of statelessness include:

• Gaps or conflicts in nationality laws;
• Arbitrary deprivation of nationality;
• Discrimination against minority groups in legislation;
• A lack of effective birth registration procedures; and
• Failure to include all residents in the body of citizens when a state becomes independent.

Unlike refugees, stateless persons are not necessarily facing persecution. However, due to their precarious situation, stateless persons are in need of international protection and assistance. Statelessness is often a root cause of forced displacement and many stateless groups face harassment, discrimination and human rights violations.

Stateless persons are generally unable to exercise the basic rights associated with citizenship or face serious difficulties in doing so. They are typically excluded from political processes, cannot travel freely and lack access to publicly funded services such as education, health care and welfare support. They often face difficulty in obtaining identity documents and securing employment and may be detained due to their lack of status. Stateless persons are also vulnerable to exploitation and abuse due to their lack of status. Research carried out by UNESCO, for example, has shown that a lack of legal status is the single greatest risk factor for a highland person in Thailand to be trafficked or exploited.

Statistics

UNHCR estimates that there are 12 million stateless persons worldwide. However, only 6.6 million of these have been formally identified by UNHCR. Obtaining precise statistics on statelessness can be difficult because, unlike refugees, stateless persons in most countries are not registered and granted a legal status and documentation. The table below shows the 30 largest documented stateless populations worldwide.

Country	Stateless persons
Thailand	3,500,000
Nepal	800,000
Myanmar	723,571
Latvia	344,263
Syria	300,000
Iraq	230,000
Estonia	104,813
Kenya	100,000
Kuwait	93,000
Saudi Arabia	70,000
Ukraine	56,500
Russian Federation	50,000
Malaysia	40,001
Kyrgyzstan	24,615
Serbia	16,700
Turkmenistan	12,000
Bosnia and Herzegovina	9,688
Germany	8,226
Belarus	7,799
Sweden	7,758
Kazakhstan	7,649
Vietnam	7,200

Source: UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database

Statelessness in international law

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights acknowledges the right to a nationality as a fundamental human right and prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of nationality.

There are two key international legal instruments relating to stateless persons. The first is the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. The 1954 Convention defines a stateless person as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.” As with the 1951 Refugee Convention, it also includes a qualifier which excludes any person who has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, a crime against humanity, a serious non-political crime or any other act contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations from receiving protection under the Convention.

The 1954 Statelessness Convention also recognises that stateless persons hold certain rights. It requires states parties to accord to stateless persons:

• The same rights as citizens in relation to freedom of religion, intellectual property, access to courts and legal assistance, rationing, access to primary education, public relief, labour rights and social security.
• Treatment which is as favourable as possible and at least as favourable as that accorded to foreign nationals, in relation to the acquisition of property, freedom of association, access to employment, self-employment, housing and access to secondary and tertiary education.
• Treatment which is at least as favourable as that accorded to foreign nationals in relation to freedom of movement.

The 1954 Convention also prohibits states from expelling a stateless person lawfully in their territory except on grounds of national security or public order.

The second key instrument is the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which outlines measures to prevent statelessness. These measures fall into four main categories:

• Prevention of statelessness among children by requiring states parties to grant their nationality children who would otherwise be stateless and have ties with the state either through birth in its territory or through descent from a national of that state.
• Prevention of statelessness caused by loss or renunciation of nationality by requiring that the loss or renunciation of nationality be conditional on the possession or acquisition of another nationality.
• Prevention of statelessness caused by deprivation of nationality by prohibiting deprivation of nationality if it would result in stateless and prohibiting deprivation of nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds.
• Prevention of statelessness caused by state succession by requiring that, in cases where there is transfer of territory resulting from one state replacing (or “succeeding”) another in responsibility for a territory, special provision is made for persons who could be made stateless by the transfer.

The two Conventions on statelessness are not as widely ratified as the Refugee Convention. There are currently 66 parties to the 1954 Convention, and 38 states parties to the 1961 Convention. A complete list of states parties to the two Conventions can be obtained through the United Nations’ Status of Treaties database, accessible through treaties.un.org