Statelessness

Forced Migration Review

After confirmation of their citizenship, Biharis in Bangladesh can now have hope of leading a normal life after decades of exclusion.

Photo credit: UNHCR/G M B Akash

A ‘stateless person’ is someone who is not recognised as a national by any state and therefore has no nationality or citizenship and is unprotected by national legislation. Provided below are links to numerous key resources, websites and documents related to issues of statelessness and the search for appropriate responses and solutions. This Resource Summary was prepared to complement Forced Migration Review’s Issue 32: Statelessness.

FMO Resources

Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2008: ‘Zomia: The Last Great Enclosure Movement and Stateless Peoples in Southeast Asia’

Documents

Selected full-text documents (for more, search in the Digital Library)

• Amnesty International, ‘Bhutan: nationality, expulsion, statelessness and the right to return’, 2000
• Batchelor, Carol A. ‘Statelessness and the problem of resolving citizenship status’, 1996 [RSC resource]
• Desai, Meghnad, ‘Famines, entitlements and statelessness’, Paper based on lecture at International Workshop "Documentation and Database in Relief Administration", 19 March 1993, New Delhi
• Goodwin-Gill, Guy ‘Nationality and statelessness, residence and refugee status: issues affecting Palestinians’, 1990 [RSC]
• Goodwin-Gill, Guy ‘Stateless persons and protection under the 1951 Convention or Refugees, beware of academic error!’ Paper presented at colloquium on "Les recents developpements en droit de l'immigration", 22 Jan 1993, Quebec
• Hailbronner, Kay ‘Ad hoc committee of experts on the legal aspects of territorial asylum refugees and stateless persons (CAHAR) : the concept of "safe country" and expedient asylum procedures’, 1991
• Khan, Abdul Mabud, ‘The Maghs : a study of community-migration’, Paper for conference on refugees, migrants and stateless persons : in search of a national consensus, Dhaka, December 29-30, 1997
• Preston, Rosemary ‘The changing role of the state in educational development ; states, statelessness and education : post-return integration of exiles trained abroad - the role of the state in Namibia’, 1993

Web Resources

Selected web-based information resources (for more, search the FMO website)

• Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1957)
• Convention on the Reduction of Cases of Multiple Nationality and Military Obligations in Cases of Multiple Nationality (1963)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (1979)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
• Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959)
• Declaration on the human rights of individuals who are not nationals of the country in which they live
• European Convention on Nationality
• Hague Convention on Nationality (1930)
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
• International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990)
• International Observatory on Statelessness - Publications
• OAS Convention on the Nationality of Women (1933)
• Plan (2006) Count me in! The Global Campaign for Universal Birth Registration
• UNHCR Publication: Statelessness: An analytical Framework for Prevention, Reduction and Protection
• UNHCR Information and Accession Package: The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

Relevant Organizations

Contact details for relevant organizations (for more, search in the Organizations Directory)

• Association for Civil Rights in Israel
• The Equal Rights Trust
• International Observatory on Statelessness
• Open Society Justice Initiative
• Refugees International
• US Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration