Statelessness: A long list of what is lost

Statelessness

10 million people are currently stateless ¹ and many more are at risk of statelessness. Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as:

“a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”.

A lot is written about statelessness and stateless people and their plight.  Each article, each blog or tweet gives examples of what it means to be stateless, what opportunities and rights are denied or curtailed to those who are born or find themselves stateless.  Not all the examples will apply to all states which host a stateless population, or a population of ‘nationality unknown’. But many items on the list will affect most stateless people wherever they are.

In this blog I want to put together a (non-exhaustive and not necessarily in order of importance) list of what is lost, or is out of reach, for a person who is stateless, based on recent articles, blogs and tweets on the topic.

 

A legal identity

Some children that are born stateless cannot obtain a birth certificate. Stateless people often cannot prove their identity when required to do so or when it is necessary to access basic rights and face discrimination when they cannot provide that proof ². This in part explains the number of recent articles and blogs discussing blockchain technology as being a paperless solution to a paper problem ³. See also my previous blog on what blockchain technology is and how it might be able to help with this problem.

 

Access to political rights

Political rights like voting, standing for office, or even working as a public servant are denied to stateless peoples. In some countries, you cannot even access a government building – never mind access to any kind of redress or assistance from anyone that works in one – if you do not have an identity document ⁴

 

Access to healthcare

 

Access to education

Stateless children in many countries cannot access education. Examples are VietNam and South Africa ⁵.

 

The ability to purchase and own land

Stateless people are often denied the right to purchase land. This is either because the right is available only to citizens (see my discussion of this in my blog on the stateless in Cote D’Ivoire), or because identity documents are required which the stateless person does not have. Alternatively, it is because as a stateless person he or she cannot get access to a loan or a mortgage needed to purchase land or larger property.

 

Legal employment

Stateless people are often reduced to working insecure, low-paid ⁶, low-skilled jobs, with few or no extra benefits, with no labour regulation protection and in breach of labour laws. The risk of exploitation is high ⁷.

 

The right to marry

 

The right to travel freely within one’s own country

For example, in Thailand, a non-Thai ID card can restrict a person’s right to move beyond the Province in which they are registered ⁸.

 

The right to travel freely to other countries

Travel without a passport or travel document ⁹ can be difficult if not impossible and attempts to cross borders may result in detention and/or deportation ¹⁰.

 

The right to have rights (rather than having to earn or ‘deserve’ those rights)

For an example of this, see the recent coverage of the stateless boys rescued from the cave in Thailand or the heroic Mamadou Gassama, the Malian ‘Spiderman of Paris”, where citizenship is a form of reward for ‘good’ stateless people (the Thai Cave boys) and for migrants (Mr Gassama). Those stories light up the public’s imagination but perpetuate the misconception that the state should be granting grace and favours in an arbitrary way, as and when it proves popular. There is a big statelessness problem in Thailand, something which the story of the cave boys has at least highlighted ¹¹. But the answer is not simply to cut the red tape for the chosen few but to create a fair, accessible and easy to use process to minimise, avoid and eradicate statelessness for all within the state’s borders.

 

Civil rights and state protection

Civil rights include the right not be discriminated against, the right to physical and mental integrity, to life and to safety.  Stateless people are at a heightened risk of human trafficking, exploitation and discrimination ¹² because they cannot prove a link to the state in which they live or their identity ¹³.

 

Access to finance and financial services

Opening a bank account and access to other financial services for example being able to get a mortgage, a loan or insurance, access to microfinancing and peer-to-peer lending.

 

Dignity

 

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The list is long.

The items on the list impact every aspect of every day of the life of a stateless person.  To give you an idea of the level of impact of statelessness on a person, consider the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its 30 Articles. If we compare the list of what is lost through statelessness with the rights in the Declaration we can see that being stateless means not being able to access, or the potential breach, of at least 20 of those rights.

Article 1: stateless people are not often equal in dignity and basic human rights.

Article 2: stateless people face a distinction and sometimes active discrimination on the basis of national or social origin or birth.

Article 3: stateless people often face threats to their liberty and security of person.

Article 4: stateless people are more at risk of servitude and slavery.

Article 5: stateless people are often subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.

Article 6: stateless people are often not recognised before the law or are simply ‘unseen’.

Article 7: stateless people are not seen as equal before the law and face discrimination.

Article 9: stateless people are often subject to arbitrary detention, arrest or exile.

Article 12: stateless people often face arbitrary interference with their privacy, family and homes.

Article 13: stateless people often do not have freedom of movement rights.

Article 15: stateless people have the right to nationality, but this is not respected. Some people have become stateless because they were arbitrarily deprived of their nationality.

Article 16: some stateless people do not have the right to marry.

Article 17: stateless people can face hurdles when it comes to owning property.

Article 21: stateless people are often denied the right to take part in the government of their country of residence, or to have access to the state’s public services. Nor can they vote or use their voice to improve their own condition.

Article 22: stateless people often do not have access to social security and their social and cultural rights can be heavily curtailed.

Article 23: stateless people often cannot access legal employment and if they are able to work are denied the right to free choice of employment, or to be able to fight for fair pay and conditions.

Article 25: stateless people often do not have access to adequate or any healthcare.

Article 26: stateless children are in many countries denied the right to attend school.

Article 28: stateless people often live in a parallel world where the social and international order in which the rights and freedoms of the Declaration are not realised, at least not for them.

Article 30: stateless people are often at the mercy of states and at the mercy of the political will of those states to eradicate or minimise statelessness. Some states do engage in the active destruction of the rights and freedoms set out in the Declaration. Statelessness is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made problem ¹⁴.

 

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No doubt I have missed something. No doubt some of the effects and consequences of statelessness are beyond what most of us can imagine or summarise in a list. What have a missed? Let me know. Feel free to add to the list in the comments below. Let me know, too, if you think the list is longer for children than for adults, or if it is longer for the stateless children of stateless adults.