U.S COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS
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What is Statelessness?

September 13, 2024

Za Beda is a Rohingya woman who is forced to live in a refugee camp after Myanmar stripped her of legal protection. Starting in 2012, Myanmar launched violent attacks against the Rohingya, forcing them to flee to rural areas and camps. Za Beda has children, none of whom have birth certificates. Myanmar will not recognize her children as citizens. Without citizenship, she wonders if her children will be able to go to school and have access to future opportunities.

 

Definition

A “stateless person” is a person who is not protected as a citizen or national of any country. People can be born into statelessness or become stateless.

Statelessness impacts at least 10 million people worldwide. State recognition of a person is important because the state is often the main source of fundamental human rights and protections.

Refugees are at risk of statelessness because of lengthy displacement and reluctance by host countries to offer resettlement. Long-term refugees, including refugees who are warehoused, can pass down statelessness to their children, leading to generational statelessness.

 

Causes

Statelessness occurs when countries fail to protect people through nationality laws. In countries where nationality is based on the place of birth, registering a birth is difficult in displacement and humanitarian situations. People living in territories that secede as an independent country, such as South Sudan, can lose their nationality and become stateless.

In countries where nationality is determined by parentage, children with stateless or deceased parents are born into statelessness. Also, discriminatory policies can restrict mothers from passing down their nationalities.

Colonial policies and border disputes can lead to statelessness. In Côte d’Ivoire, people who settled because of colonial-era forced labor or migration became stateless after independence in 1960. To this day, their descendants are born without Ivorian nationality.

 

Impact

A stateless person is not protected by any country. They are barred access to basic human rights, including the rights to education, political participation, movement, work, and health. A stateless person is not recognized by any country, so they cannot get a passport, ID card, or national identification number. For the very few who can obtain a travel document for stateless persons, their form of identification is not widely accepted.

Without proof of nationality, a person may not work, open a bank account, or travel. A child can be barred from school and may not have access to health care.

Statelessness affects multiple generations because certain tribal or ethnic groups are discriminated against, or a population is subjected to lengthy wars and conflict. In Myanmar, the Government stripped the Rohingya of legal protections, causing people like Za Beda to be displaced without basic human rights.

 

Solutions

The solution requires countries to change their nationality laws. Regional cooperation is necessary, especially in areas where displacement and conflict are major causes of statelessness.

In February 2024, the African Union agreed to a treaty to eradicate statelessness on the continent, after over a decade of advocacy. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Relating to the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa (“AU Protocol on Statelessness”) would give children a right to nationality and end generational statelessness.

The treaty has not yet been implemented. Many countries are slow in changing their laws, leaving about a million people unprotected and many millions more at risk. On August 7, 2024, UNHCR hosted talks with African Union countries to advise on implementation.

 

USCRI Recommendations

 

#IBELONG:

 

 

USCRI, founded in 1911, is a non-governmental, not-for-profit international organization committed to working on behalf of refugees and immigrants and their transition to a dignified life.

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