Stateless infants, children and youth, through no fault of their own, inherit circumstances that limit their potential and provide, at best, an uncertain future. They are born, live, and unless they can resolve their situation, die as almost invisible people. Statelessness…
From around 1990 there have been people illegally entering Japan from Thailand. Though born and brought up in Thailand, they have no Thai nationality as their parents were ‘Indochinese refugees’ escaping the first Indochina War (1946-54). As their parents were…
Statelessness lurks behind many problems. All too often, it denies children access to education. It prevents their parents from working legally, and makes persons vulnerable to labour exploitation, sexual exploitation, trafficking in persons, arbitrary arrest and detention, discrimination and other…
Israeli law grants Jews preferred and almost exclusive status with regard to entry into the country. The Interior Minister has extremely limited authority when it comes to restricting an individual who complies with the criteria of the law from immigrating…
Exclusion and inclusion had been part of the process of state formation in the Arab region that took place when Ottoman rule ended and the European colonial powers divided up the Ottoman inheritance directly after the First World War. The…
Whether a result of conflict, shifting borders or the manipulation of the laws and tools used to administer modern day society, stateless people are unwanted and unwelcome and find themselves excluded from society by forces beyond their control. Not only…
Kosovo’s declaration of independence on 17 February 2008 raised the question of statelessness for displaced persons originating from Kosovo. A large number of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians displaced from Kosovo are presumed not to be registered as residents in Montenegro.[1]…
The Roma are a minority population living primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Western Anatolia who are often not well integrated into local society. For Roma, registering as citizens and obtaining documentation have been especially difficult. Macedonia,[1]…
Stateless persons are victims of a serious human rights violation: they are deprived of the protective link between a state and its citizens. Yet statelessness is a forgotten issue in Europe, as in the rest of the world. Protection regimes…
In a world where all human beings must live on the territory of one nation state or another, this is a fundamental principle of justice. Having a nationality is a gateway to other rights; it is not without justification that…