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Statelessness: A denial of human rights
15.2.2010
By Ardahan Ali, a contributing writer for ekurd.net
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February
15, 2010
Statelessness refers to the
condition of a person who is not recognised as a
national by any state. Stateless people are isolated
by state legislation, leaving them vulnerable in
ways that most of us never have to estimate.
Stateless person is "a person who is not considered
as a national by any State under the operation of
its law" (Article 1 of the Convention relating to
the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954).
Kurds, Bidoons, Rohingya and millions of people fall
under this definition. There are two kinds of
statelessness: de jure and de facto. |
Ardahan Ali |
De jure stateless people are not
measured as nationals therefore they do not have a
nationality /citizenship, for example Kurds in
Syria. De facto statelessness where an individual
has a nationality but the nationality is
meaningless, for example people in Hong Kong not of
Chinese descent.
It may be argued that in an ideal world there would
be no person without nationality but in the existent
world mainly in the less developed countries under
the names of sovereignty, safety measures and
changing rules people become stateless. UNHCR
estimates that there may be as many of "12 million
stateless people worldwide." (UNHCR, 2009)
Stateless people are not just vulnerable people in
the world but they are some of the most hidden
people as well. In practice, many stateless people
are officially invisible as a result of their
isolation by national legislations or they might
have crossed international borders but have not
attempted to be designated as refugees therefore
they are mostly invisible. "Hidden in the back
corners of the world, is a scattered population of
millions of nobodies, citizens of nowhere, forgotten
or neglected by governments, ignored by census
takers." (Bartlett, 2008)
There are many causes of statelessness, like the
statelessness through a confusing chain of
sovereign, political, legal, technical or
administrative orders or whatever the reasons are it
is absolutely against fundamental human rights, the
right to a nationality is protected under
international law. The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights provides a general right to nationality
which that:
"1.Everyone has the right to a nationality.2. No one
shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor
denied the right to change his nationality."
(Article 15 of the UDHR, 1948)
Many stateless people may not have access to the
same levels of health care, education and employment
as other nationals. Statelessness leads to
inequality and discrimination against the
individual, for example: denationalized Kurds are
facing many difficulties in Syria owing to their
ethnicity, they are making up to 300,000 of the
country's population, and under the name of
soverginty they are denied basic rights,www.ekurd.netthey
cannot have regular access to education,
nationality, health care, property rights, judicial
and legal systems; they have been forgotten and
isolated by the state, therefore the statelessness
of thousands Kurds in Syria based on discrimination,
which is created by human beings to limit right to
self-determination of a certain minority, it is a
discrimination that targets a specific group.
Statelessness has a negative impact on children too,
despite the fact that the children’s right to
nationality is protected in accordance to the Rights
of the Child under the UN Convention, which provides
that:
The child shall be registered immediately after
birth and shall have the right from birth to a name,
the right to acquire a nationality and as far as
possible, the right to know and be cared for by his
or her parents. (Article 7 of the UNCRC, 1989)
But stateless children in a number of countries for
example; Syria owing to their ethnicity they cannot
have a birth certificate, as their parents are not
provided with marriage certificates and access to
education is often restricted.
Most stateless people are officially invisible and
face a wide range of barriers in their daily lives,
Statelessness is a big issue worldwide, the number
of stateless people is high and should be tackled
through wide-ranging resources, no one shall be
excluded from nationality and citizenship whatever
the reasons are it is absolutely against basic human
rights.
Reference list
Bartlett, A. (2008) 'Stateless People'. Rohingya
Times, [Online] Available from: http://www.rohingyatimes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=162&Itemid=59.
The General Assembly of the United Nations, (1948)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[Internet] Geneva: UN Available from: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
The General Assembly of the United Nations, (1989)
Convention on the Rights of the Child. [Internet]
New York: OHCHR. Available from:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm.
The General Assembly of the United Nations, (1954)
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons. [Internet] New York: OHCHR. Available from:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/stateless.htm
UNHCR, (2009) ‘Addressing Situations of
Statelessness’ UNHCR Global Appeal 2009 Update,
45-48.
ekurd.net -
Ardahan Ali
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