A ‘stateless person’ is someone who is not recognised as a national by any state. They therefore have no nationality or citizenship (terms used interchangeably in this issue) and are unprotected by national legislation, leaving them vulnerable in ways that most of us never have to consider.
The possible consequences of statelessness are profound and touch on all aspects of life. It may not be possible to work legally, own property or open a bank account. Stateless people may be easy prey for exploitation as cheap labour. They are often not permitted to attend school or university, may be prohibited from getting married and may not be able to register births and deaths. Stateless people can neither vote nor access the national justice system.
As we are reminded by Mark Manly and Santhosh Persaud in their article in this issue, statelessness often means that leading a life like others in society is just not possible. Lacking access to the rights, services and legal documentation available to citizens, the world’s stateless populations face unique challenges and require specialised responses from the international refugee regime as well as specific instruments for their protection.
We are grateful to Brad Blitz, Julia Harrington, Indira Goris, Sebastian Kohn, Mark Manly and Santhosh Persaud for their advice and support. We would also like to thank those agencies who generously provided funding for this particular issue: the US Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM); the Open Society Justice Initiative; the European Union; the Statelessness
Unit of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection Services; and UNHCR’s Africa Bureau.
Reader Survey: Our thanks to those of you who completed our Reader Survey and gave us your endorsement and your ideas. A summary report is on page 74 and a fuller report is online.
FMR websites: The FMR websites are now fully searchable and all articles in the issues to date will shortly be indexed by country and theme.
Our mailing list: We need to ensure that our mailing list is as up to date as possible. If your contact details have changed recently, or if you expect them to change in the near future, please would you email us (fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk) with the details. This will save possible wastage of FMR funds on postage.
With best wishes.
Marion Couldrey & Maurice Herson
Editors
Forthcoming issues
- FMR 33, due out in July 2009, will focus on protracted displacement situations.
- FMR 34 (November 2009) will focus on urban displacement. The call for articles is at http://www.fmreview.org/urban-displacement/. Deadline for submission of articles is 20 July (please note extended deadline).
- FMR 35 (March 2010) will focus on disability and displacement.
See http://www.fmreview.org/forthcoming.htm for details.