President's Corner: Combating Statelessness
Monday, January 29, 2007
Over the weekend I got a call from a friend whose son-in-law, an Israeli, had just been detained and charged with violating U.S. immigration laws. He had gone to renew his driver’s license in Texas and a routine search of computer records found that he had failed to renew his Green Card some 20 years ago and had been living here illegally. During that time, he raised a family, started a business and paid taxes. Also, during that time his Israeli passport expired, so he has no official documentation as a citizen of any country and no rights. For the time being, this man illustrates the plight of stateless people—he has no legal protections.
Refugees International estimates that there are more than 11 million stateless people in the world today. “Everyone has the right to nationality,” the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, but a stateless person lacks the basic rights and privileges that citizenship confers—the right to work, access to school and healthcare, basic legal protections, and, in some countries, the right to vote. What’s more, stateless people frequently fall between the cracks of international relief efforts, as well as national development plans. In many places, they are invisible people.
Who are the stateless? Some people become officially stateless because they fail to keep up with immigration laws. This is the case of the man in Texas. If he is deported, he will reactivate his Israeli citizenship and no longer be stateless. Others belong to groups that fled their countries to escape war or persecution, have been targets of ethnic discrimination, were caught in the wrong place by history, or may be a child born to refugee parents, to migrant workers, or be of mixed parentage in countries whose laws or politics prevent their acquisition of a nationality and an identity. These groups include denationalized Kurds in Syria, Biharis in Bangladesh, Haitians in the Dominican Republic, Nubians in Kenya, Russians in Estonia, and some Palestinians.
The world paid scant attention to stateless people until two years ago, when Refugees International published a report, Lives on Hold: The Human Costs of Statelessness. That report and subsequent studies told the sad stories of stateless people.
“I am very much in love with a woman, but her father refused to allow us to marry, telling me that because I have no nationality, I have no future….To this day we both remain single,” a stateless Kurd in Syria told RI.
“There is no health, no sanitation, no education,” said a stateless Bihari in Bangladesh.
A Bidoon man in the United Arab Emirates said that being stateless is like “a boat without a port.” (In Arabic, Bidoon means “without”, and several hundred thousand stateless people in the Persian Gulf states do feel that they lack protection.)
RI has been campaigning tirelessly to combat statelessness. The U.S. State Department and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have boosted the number of people working on statelessness. One result is that the State Department’s annual human rights report is beginning to focus on statelessness as a denial of human rights. Congress is taking an interest.
Despite increasing interest, the U.S. has not taken a leadership role on statelessness. The U.S. has not signed two key UN Conventions, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
There are some encouraging developments. In recent years Kuwait has granted citizenship to some 40,000 Bidoons, including Bidoon husbands of Kuwaiti women. Recent media reports, however, suggest that the rights of an estimated 100,000 Bidoon in the country still cannot avail themselves of a right to an effective nationality. While Kuwait has set a good example to begin the process of reducing statelessness, there is much to be done.
Until the U.S. and other nations begin to take statelessness more seriously, countries harboring large stateless populations will feel little pressure to make citizen rights and protections available.
Refugees International estimates that there are more than 11 million stateless people in the world today. “Everyone has the right to nationality,” the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, but a stateless person lacks the basic rights and privileges that citizenship confers—the right to work, access to school and healthcare, basic legal protections, and, in some countries, the right to vote. What’s more, stateless people frequently fall between the cracks of international relief efforts, as well as national development plans. In many places, they are invisible people.
Who are the stateless? Some people become officially stateless because they fail to keep up with immigration laws. This is the case of the man in Texas. If he is deported, he will reactivate his Israeli citizenship and no longer be stateless. Others belong to groups that fled their countries to escape war or persecution, have been targets of ethnic discrimination, were caught in the wrong place by history, or may be a child born to refugee parents, to migrant workers, or be of mixed parentage in countries whose laws or politics prevent their acquisition of a nationality and an identity. These groups include denationalized Kurds in Syria, Biharis in Bangladesh, Haitians in the Dominican Republic, Nubians in Kenya, Russians in Estonia, and some Palestinians.
The world paid scant attention to stateless people until two years ago, when Refugees International published a report, Lives on Hold: The Human Costs of Statelessness. That report and subsequent studies told the sad stories of stateless people.
“I am very much in love with a woman, but her father refused to allow us to marry, telling me that because I have no nationality, I have no future….To this day we both remain single,” a stateless Kurd in Syria told RI.
“There is no health, no sanitation, no education,” said a stateless Bihari in Bangladesh.
A Bidoon man in the United Arab Emirates said that being stateless is like “a boat without a port.” (In Arabic, Bidoon means “without”, and several hundred thousand stateless people in the Persian Gulf states do feel that they lack protection.)
RI has been campaigning tirelessly to combat statelessness. The U.S. State Department and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have boosted the number of people working on statelessness. One result is that the State Department’s annual human rights report is beginning to focus on statelessness as a denial of human rights. Congress is taking an interest.
Despite increasing interest, the U.S. has not taken a leadership role on statelessness. The U.S. has not signed two key UN Conventions, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
There are some encouraging developments. In recent years Kuwait has granted citizenship to some 40,000 Bidoons, including Bidoon husbands of Kuwaiti women. Recent media reports, however, suggest that the rights of an estimated 100,000 Bidoon in the country still cannot avail themselves of a right to an effective nationality. While Kuwait has set a good example to begin the process of reducing statelessness, there is much to be done.
Until the U.S. and other nations begin to take statelessness more seriously, countries harboring large stateless populations will feel little pressure to make citizen rights and protections available.
Labels: President's Corner, statelessness
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