Statelessness Information
Statelessness is the legal and social concept of a lack of belonging (or a lawfully enforceable claim) to any recognised state. Statelessness is not always the same as lack of citizenship.
De jure statelessness is where there exists no recognised state in respect of which the subject has a legally meritorious basis to claim nationality.
De facto statelessness is where the man, woman or child may have a lawful and meritorious claim but is precluded from asserting it because of practical considerations such as cost, circumstances of civil disorder, or the fear of discrimination or persecution.
Statelessness most commonly affects refugees although not all refugees are stateless, and not all stateless men, women and children may be able to qualify as refugees. Refugee status entails the extra requirements that the refugee be outside his or her country of nationality (or country of habitual domicile if stateless), and is deserving of asylum based upon a well-founded fear of persecution for categorized reasons which make it unwilling or unable to avail itself of the protection of that country.
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Stateless person
A stateless person is someone with no registered citizenship or nationality. It may be because the state that gave its previous nationality has ceased to exist and there is no successor state or their nationality has been repudiated by their own state, or because their particular religious faith is challenged by the laws regarding registry in the State they formerly occupied, effectively making them refugees. People may be stateless also if they are members of a group which is denied citizen status in the country on whose territory they are born, if they are born in disputed territories, if they are born in an area ruled by an entity whose independence is not internationally recognized, or if they are born on territory over which no modern state claims sovereignty.
Individuals may also become stateless voluntarily by formally renouncing their citizenship while on foreign soil (e.g. World Citizen Garry Davis). However, not all states recognize such renunciations on the part of their citizens. Often, depending on the specific laws of the countries involved, one may not renounce a citizenship unless one is a dual citizen and can show citizenship in a country other than that of the undesired citizenship. Consulates do not want to deal with the complications associated with statelessness if they can avoid it. However, consular officials are unlikely to be familiar with all citizenship laws of all countries, so there still can be situations where statelessness might arise. For example, children born outside Canada to a Canadian parent or parents are, under certain circumstances, required to establish Canadian residency by age 28 or lose Canadian citizenship. If such a person held dual citizenship and, as a young adult, renounced the second citizenship on the strength of his or her Canadian passport, and then subsequently failed to establish the required Canadian residency, he or she could end up stateless.
Statelessness may also arise at birth. For example, a person born to Americans abroad, who have not spent five years in the US or one of its possessions, does not have the right to transfer citizenship (i.e., those persons' children will not be US citizens at birth). If that person continues to live abroad (e.g., as a resident alien, not a dual citizen) and then has children with a person with the same status in a country that does not have jus soli, their children will automatically be stateless at birth (Immigration and Nationality Act Sec. 301g). However, many states have signed the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and will grant nationality to otherwise stateless persons born on their territory. Unregistered children are also considered stateless regardless of where they are born.
Some areas, such as the West Bank which is not part of any country, are home to stateless persons. In some enclave areas, such as parts of Sudan and Afghanistan, people may have no practical contact with a potentially passport-issuing state which nominally claims sovereignty over them.
While stateless persons were more common before the 20th century, when many states were somewhat fragile entities, on September 20, 1954 the United Nations adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons: an active policy to prevent people becoming or remaining stateless. States which have ratified the Convention are bound to give stateless persons rights similar to those granted aliens of comparable status. Despite this, there are still Kurdish, Palestinian, Sahrawi and Tibetan refugees who claim asylum due to statelessness, for example.
Principle 3 of the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child asserts that:
"The child shall be entitled from his birth to a name and a nationality."
States bound by the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are obligated to implement policies and programs to ensure that children's families and national authorities can secure citizenship for every child in the country.
In practice, when a child's birth is not registered that child's existence may not be acknowledged and the child may be denied citizenship and thereby Stateless. Some governing bodies refuse to recognize unregistered births — and therefore the existence and the nationality of some children - because of race, ethnicity, or questions of "legitimacy".
Characteristics of statelessness affect Amerasian children and young adults in Southeast Asia. They are commonly fathered abroad by US servicemen and mothers of Asian nationalities.
An attempt to reduce discrimination against women is made in the 1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women with its provisions to prevent the automatic acquisition of the husband's citizenship. It also intends to prevent women losing citizenship and becoming stateless if they marry a stateless man.[1]
History
Prior to World War II
4th century BC Sicilian impression of a theatre slaveStatelessness characterised the status of slaves and inhabitants of conquered territories in the Greco-Roman world of antiquity. In antiquity, statelessness could be seen to affect captive and subject populations denied full citizenship (see Roman Citizen) including those enslaved—for instance, conquered populations excluded from Roman citizenship such as the Gauls immediately following the Gallic Wars, or Israelites under Babylonian captivity.
Characteristics of statelessness are seen amongst apostates and slaves in Islamic society, the former being persons shunned by or rejecting their tribal/national/ethno-religious birth identity, the latter being persons separated from that identity and subsumed into an underclass role.
Statelessness has perennially characterised the existence of Roma People by virtue of their nomadic lifestyles over centuries of traversing lands claimed by others.
The Office international Nansen pour les réfugiés was an organization of the League of Nations which was internationally in charge of refugees from war areas from 1930 to 1939. It received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938. Their Nansen passports, designed in 1922 by founder Fridtjof Nansen, were internationally recognized identity cards first issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees. In 1942 they were honored by governments in 52 countries and were the first refugee travel documents.
After World War II
The initial focus of UN action was the sponsorship of conventions in 1954 (the "Status Convention") and 1961 (the "Reduction Convention") resulting in instruments of international law. Continuing action through the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) encourages member states to take up ratification and address statelessness within their own borders by programs of naturalisation and co-operation with neighbouring states. UNHCR also conducts public education campaigns to highlight the plight of stateless communities in special need.
Outside of the UN, regional initiatives to address statelessness and its associated problems can be seen in multilateral treaty instruments such as the Council of Europe Convention on Reduction of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession.
Migrations forced by political instability during World War II and its immediate aftermath highlighted the international dimension of the problems presented by unprecedented volumes of displaced persons including those rendered effectively stateless.
Dating from December 1948 and with the imprimatur of the world community acting through the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Article 15 affirms that
- Everyone has the right to a nationality.
- No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
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.[2]
The International Law Commission at its fifth session in 1953 produced both a Draft Convention on the Elimination of Future Statelessness, and a Draft Convention on the Reduction of Future Statelessness. ECOSOC approved both drafts.
A Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons was signed in September 1954.[3] It was complemented by the "Statelessness Reduction Convention" seven years later.
German 1954 Convention Travel DocumentThe 1954 Status Convention provided for the UNHCR to issue travel documents to stateless persons. It urged for stateless persons to be treated at least as fairly as aliens and in some cases to be treated the same as nationals by contracting states (e.g. in their access to the courts, their rights to movable property, their rights to intellectual property). It also acknowledged the problem of stateless seamen by urging that states should confer their citizenship on such people according to the flags of the vessels to which they are attached.
The 1961 Statelessness Reduction Convention was a significant aspirational achievement in working to eliminate the problem of statelessness, or at least the problems associated with it. The Reduction Convention is binding on those states that have ratified or acceded to it and it also works to create norms and to codify and confirm principles of customary international law as they relate to nationality law existing at the time of its formation.
Statelessness since 1961
1961 marks the year from which the UN proposed to exercise a mandate over stateless persons beyond the production of travel documents upon request for them.
In 1974, the UN General Assembly requested the UNHCR to undertake the functions foreseen under the Reduction Convention.
On 13 December 1975, the 1961 Convention entered into force. There is a poor level of uptake, with only 35 state ratifications or accessions in the period to February 2007.
In 1995, the UNHCR Executive Committee(ExCom) and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) requested UNHCR to broaden its activities concerning statelessness to include all states. The office was also asked to gather and share information on the problem of statelessness globally, to train staff and government officials, and to regularly report back to the ExCom.
In 1996 UNHCR was asked by the UNGA to actively promote accession 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.
Regional instruments, such as the 1997 European Convention on Nationality, have also contributed to protecting the rights of stateless persons. 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.
The 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).[4] 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. The UNHCR also assisted the Czech Republic to overcome the large number of stateless persons created when it separated from Slovakia.
An internal evaluation released in 2001 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 field officers had been trained to address the issue. There was no dedicated budget line. Concerned organisations such as Refugees International have advocated for the appointment of a permanent UN Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Statelessness[5]
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.
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.[6]
The greatest populations (over 100,000) of stateless persons are seen in the Dominican Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Latvia, Estonia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. Significant stateless populations are also reported in other countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.[7]
Palestinians comprise the largest stateless population in the world.[8] Abbas Shiblak Shiblak estimates that over half of the Palestinian people in the world are stateless.[9]
Further information: History of the bidoon in KuwaitCases of statelessness
De facto statelessness
Cases of de facto statelessness have arisen due to historical provisions of British nationality law which led to cases where people have had a British passport without right of abode in the United Kingdom. Those with such status who did not have citizenship or residence rights in any other country were effectively stateless[citation needed] despite holding British nationality. Examples of this include the people in Hong Kong not of Chinese descent after the turnover to the People's Republic of China in 1997 (after which many of these people have applied successfully for Chinese nationality with the Immigration Department of Hong Kong, authorized to administer the Nationality Law within the Special Administrative Region).
Effective 30 April 2003, as part of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 the United Kingdom gave most British nationals without any other citizenship the right to register as full British citizens if they wished and has hence resolved most of the British cases of effective statelessness. A similar case can be seen in illegal aliens who cannot be expelled due to specific provisions (stateless persons who, by definition, cannot be expelled to their "original country", refugees who are not accepted by their original state, etc.): they thus live in a judicial no man's land.[citation needed]
Children born abroad to Canadian citizens that 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 a native-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.[10] Rachel Chandler now holds Irish citizenship. This was possible because her paternal grandfather was Irish born.[11] Another situation occurred to Chloé 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.[12] Chloé Goldring is now a Canadian citizen.[13]
Palestinians
Even though Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza strip were issued a Palestinian passport according to the Oslo agreement, many countries (for instance Germany) still do not recognize their citizenship, and treat them as stateless. 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. Those who do not obtain Israeli citizenship are therefore generally stateless.[14]
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 and Hungary 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 practice along 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.[15] However, it is unclear as to what those plans are or whether or not the citizenship exam is still required.
Juan Mari Brás
Main article: Juan Mari BrásIn 1994, Juan Mari Brás, 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 State Department: 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.[16]
Mari Brás 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 Brás 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.
Trivia
A slightly tragicomic portrayal of this condition is the film The Terminal (2004), in which a man is forced to live in an airport due to his unrecognized citizenship status (his homeland had a military coup while he was in transit and the US government refused to recognize its new government). This story is said to be inspired in part by the real-life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who spent almost two decades in the Charles de Gaulle Airport, originally due to conflicts with French law (he refused to claim being an Iranian refugee) and he was not welcome in his countries of origin (Iran and Belgium) nor his destination (the United Kingdom). He was eventually granted and served with French immigration documents, but subsequently refused to leave the building.
The book The Death Ship (1926), by B. Traven, describes the predicament of merchant seamen who lack documentation of citizenship and cannot find legal residence or employment in any nation.
In Dimitris Lyacos's book Z213: Exit a stateless ex-prisoner's train journey is described. One section of the story refers to the Peregrini Dedicitii, foreigners under Roman rule who did not have the rights of Roman citizens but were stateless instead.
In Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, the villain makes much of his statelessness, claiming to have no identity or memory following the events of the Second World War. He even goes so far as to call himself only 'Le Chiffre' in French, literally 'the number/figure', and accordingly 'Herr Ziffer' in German and so on. His real name and history are never revealed. In the 2006 film adaptation, Le Chiffre's nationality is given as 'stateless' on the MI6 file Bond is seen reading.
In the made-for-TV movie, The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story (1988), the famed flight attendant Uli, played by Lindsay Wagner, is seen in a late scene singing "Heimatlos" to Castro, the ringleader of the hijackers. "Heimatlos" is a German song referring to the homeless people of the world. Which is why once the lullaby ends, Castro says, "It could be about us."
In Laurel and Hardy's last movie, Atoll K (1951), a stateless refugee Antoine, played by Max Elloy, tries to smuggle himself ashore with shipments of zoo animals. When caught, he pleads, "You land monkeys without a passport, and not human beings." Antoine agrees to sail with Laurel and Hardy to their newly inherited island, since no other land will accept him. En route they discover an uncharted new island, which they name "Crusoeland", and because Antoine was the first to set foot on it, no other nation can claim it and they are allowed to declare it an independent country. Laurel and Hardy explain Antoine's predicament. Hardy: "You see, he's what is known as a stateless man, in other words, a misplaced person." Laurel: "You see, he's lost and he can't find himself."
See also
References
- ^ "Full Text of Convention on the Nationality of Married Women". .umn.edu. 1958-08-11. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/w1cnmw.html. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
- ^ UNHCR in the UK - News and press
- ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1954-09-28). "Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons". UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3bbb25729.pdf. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
- ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2004-03-01). "Evaluation of UNHCR's programme to prevent and reduce statelessness in Crimea, Ukraine". UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/research/RESEARCH/405ab4c74.pdf. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
- ^ Refugees International: Publications: Stateless Report
- ^ UNHCR - Refugees by Numbers 2006 edition
- ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2006-08-21). "UNCHR, Stateless Persons and Populations at Risk of Statelessness". Unhcr.org. http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4538c8074.pdf. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
- ^ Susan Akram. "Stateless Limbo". Al-Ahram Weekly. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/652/re5.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
- ^ Abbas Shiblak (2005). "Reflections on the Palestinian Diaspora in Europe" (PDF). The Palestinian Diaspora in Europe: Challenges of Dual Identity and Adaptation (Institute of Jerusalem Studies). ISBN 9950315042. http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/Shiblak.pdf.
- ^ http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=c3a5560d-5170-4d4a-a318-a8675e759171
- ^ http://www.lostcanadians.org/forum/topics/ireland-saves-canadians
- ^ http://ccrweb.ca/en/canadas-stateless-children
- ^ CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2010/12/30/letters-being-single-god-sex-and-medical-marijuana/.
- ^ http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-reports-jump-in-jerusalem-arabs-seeking-israeli-citizenship-1.232665
- ^ [1]
- ^ "World's Only Puerto Rican". Digitas.harvard.edu. http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/~perspy/old/issues/1997/jan/first.html. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
Further reading
- Nationality and Statelessness: a handbook for parliamentarians High Commissioner for Refugees, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2005
- Stateless Palestinans
- Report describing US contributions to the resettlement of stateless populations in 2007
- Statelessness and the Benefits of Citizenship: A Comparative Study By Brad K. Blitz and Maureen Lynch http://www.udhr60.ch/report/statelessness_paper0609.pdf
- Somers, Margaret. 2008. Genealogies of Citizenship: Markets, Statelessness, and the Right to Have Rights. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-79394-0
External links
- International law: treaties and case law
- Intergovernmental organizations:
- [2] UNHCR Map (21 August 2006) Stateless Persons and Populations at Risk of Statelessness
- UNHCR page on prevention and reduction of statelessness and protection of stateless persons - background information, tools and news From UNHCR website
- International NGOS
- Specific states
- British nationality - provisions for reducing statelessness
- United States IRS Form 8898 (Renouncing citizenship).
Categories: Nationality | Statelessness
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