Statelessness

by | Aug 13, 2024 | Uncategorized

What Does It Mean To Be Stateless?

A stateless person is someone who, under national laws, does not enjoy citizenship – the legal bond between a government and an individual – in any country.  While some people are de jure, or legally stateless persons (meaning they are not recognized as citizens under the laws of any state), many people are de facto, or effectively stateless persons (meaning they are not recognized as citizens by any state even if they have a claim to citizenship under the laws of one or more states).

https://www.state.gov/other-policy-issues/statelessness/#:~:text=What%20Does%20It%20Mean%20To,an%20individual%20–%20in%20any%20country

How Many Stateless People Are There Throughout the World?

At the end of 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (the agency mandated to prevent and reduce statelessness) counted 4.4 million stateless persons worldwide but estimated that the actual number may be over 10 million due to underreporting.What Are the Causes of Statelessness?

The following are some common causes of statelessness:

  • Lack of birth registration and birth certificates;
  • Birth to stateless parents;
  • Political change and transfer of territory, which may alter the nationality status of citizens of the former state(s);
  • Administrative oversights, procedural problems, conflicts of law between two countries, or destruction of official records;
  • Alteration of nationality during marriage or the dissolution of marriage between couples from different countries;
  • Targeted discrimination against minorities;
  • Laws restricting acquisition of citizenship;
  • Laws restricting the rights of women to pass on their nationality to their children;
  • Laws relating to children born out of wedlock and during transit;
  • Loss or relinquishment of nationality without first acquiring another.

What Are the Challenges Stateless People Face Without Citizenship?

Without citizenship, stateless people have no legal protection and no right to vote, and they often lack access to: education; employment; health care; registration of birth, marriage, or death and property rights.  Stateless people may also encounter travel restrictions, social exclusion, and heightened vulnerability to sexual and physical violence, exploitation, trafficking in persons, forced displacement, and other abuses.

What Solutions Exist to End, Prevent, or Mitigate Statelessness?

Key efforts States could consider to prevent and provide a durable solution for statelessness include:

  • Creating awareness of statelessness and identifying stateless populations;
  • Universal birth registration and other forms of civil documentation;
  • Increasing access to naturalization or citizenship by:
    • Eliminating discrimination in nationality laws and practice; and
    • Building administrative capacity for civil registry; and
  • Strengthening political will and  addressing gaps in national laws that are causing statelessness.

What Is the State Department Doing To Help Stateless People?

The State Department provides assistance and engages in diplomacy to prevent and resolve statelessness.  The United States is the largest single donor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency mandated to protect stateless people.  The State Department also advocates on behalf of stateless people with foreign governments and civil society organizations and monitors the conditions and challenges that stateless people encounter.

Through diplomacy and contributions to UNHCR’s core budget, the United States supports the #IBelong Global Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024 .  The United States is a member of the Geneva-based “Group of Friends” of the #IBelong campaign, and monitors UNHCR’s statelessness activities in the field to track progress toward its Global Action Plan to End Statelessness .  In some cases, the United States funds non-governmental organizations to provide assistance to and advocate on behalf of stateless people.

At UNHCR’s second Global Refugee Forum held in 2023, the United States announced two new pledges as part of the Multistakeholder Pledge on Ending Statelessness. These include: 1) to become a member off the Global Alliance to End Statelessness, and 2) to expand global engagement and advocacy for the improvement of statelessness data and the inclusion of stateless persons in statistics.

Additionally, at the UNHCR- convened 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness the United States pledged to:

The Department of State works closely with UNHCR, as well as other governments, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, and affected individuals and communities to implement the U.S. pledges on ending statelessness.

At the 2021 UNHCR High-Level Officials Meeting (HLOM), the United States committed to improving protection of stateless persons residing in the United States by adopting a definition of statelessness for U.S. immigration purposes and building a process for making statelessness determinations consistent with U.S. law.  The Department of State supports the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) implementation of this commitment, which works to explore ways to reduce barriers to legally available immigration relief and benefits faced by stateless persons, increase data available on stateless persons in the United States, and examine the means through which DHS could facilitate work and travel for stateless persons.

The State Department is also working to:

  • Combat discrimination in nationality laws that prohibit women from transmitting citizenship to their children or foreign spouse on an equal basis with men, which often results in statelessness;
  • Create awareness of the problem of gender discrimination in nationality laws and statelessness globally; and
  • Persuade governments to repeal and amend nationality laws that discriminate against women.