Refugees International logo
donate now

Lives on Hold: Executive Summary

stateless

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


“We are between the earth and the sky…”
-A stateless Bidoon, United Arab Emirates


Every person has the right to a nationality.  Yet statelessness continues to be a fundamental cause of discrimination, exploitation, and forced displacement in all regions of the world.  Statelessness is a highly complex legal and often political issue with a disproportionate impact on women, children, and ethnically mixed families.  It has serious humanitarian implications for those it affects, including no legal protection or the right to participate in political process, poor employment prospects and poverty, little opportunity to own property, travel restrictions, social exclusion, sexual and physical violence, and inadequate access to healthcare and education. 

States have the sovereign right to determine the procedures and conditions for acquisition and termination of citizenship, but statelessness and disputed nationality can only be addressed by the very governments that regularly breach protection and citizenship norms.  To date, only 57 states have become party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and even fewer states, just 29, are party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.  

The exact number of individuals affected by statelessness is not known.  Refugees International believes the low end estimate to be over 11 million.  They are found among individuals from the former Soviet bloc, some of Thailand’s ethnic groups, the Bhutanese in Nepal, Muslim minorities in Burma and Sri Lanka, Palestinians, Europe’s Roma, the Bidoon in Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, specific cases in the Horn of Africa, ethnic minorities such as the Batwa ‘Pygmy’ and Banyarwanda of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Bihari and Rohingya in Bangladesh, Kurdish populations, numbers of Arab Shiites, some Meskhetian Turks, and Zimbabweans of Indian descent or with links to Malawi and Mozambique.

The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons identifies a stateless person as someone who does not have the legal bond of nationality with any state.  Unlike refugees and internally displaced people, stateless individuals generally do not benefit from the protection and assistance of governments, aid agencies, and the United Nations, despite its mandate over stateless persons.  They are essentially international orphans.  At present, only two staff people at the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are employed to focus on this large and growing population.  

In November 2004, Refugees International (RI) launched a multi-country assessment mission to take a closer look at the global problem of statelessness. 

  • In Bangladesh, RI representatives visited eleven of the sixty-six camps where more than 250,000 Biharis (also called stranded Pakistanis) have lived under harsh conditions for thirty-three years.  Both Pakistan and Bangladesh refuse to offer them citizenship.  It is a critical humanitarian situation, and no one is helping to find short or long-term solutions.
  • In Estonia, RI learned first-hand about the labor and socio-economic challenges faced by 160,000 Russian-speaking minority residents who were left behind when Estonia entered the European Union earlier this year.  Because there is minimal mixing of the populations, it is difficult for Russian-speakers to develop adequate Estonian language skills required to pass the citizenship test needed to acquire better jobs, participate in national elections, and travel abroad.
  • In the United Arab Emirates, Bidoon keep a low profile and live quietly in shantytowns waiting for a solution to their problem.  “We are like a boat without a port,” one Bidoon told RI. 

The gap between rights and reality must be closed.  This report takes a look at the issue of statelessness through a humanitarian lens, provides an in depth examination of the problem in three countries, presents a global review of statelessness, and makes concrete recommendations to prevent new cases of statelessness and end the problem where it exists. 

Refugees International will take these findings and its recommendations to the UN, national governments, regional bodies, non-governmental organizations, and the general public in order to raise awareness of this often purposely hidden problem, and to advocate for changes in the status quo.   Ultimately the prevention and reduction of statelessness contributes not only to the promotion of human rights, an improved quality of life for affected individuals, and increased overall human security, but it also aids in the reduction of forced displacement and refugee flows. 


REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL RECOMMENDS THAT:

States
  • Respect the right of all individuals to have a nationality.
  • Become party and adhere to international standards to protect stateless people and reduce statelessness by facilitating acquisition of nationality.
  • UN and Non-Governmental Agencies
  • Clearly define agency mandates and outline concrete operational objectives in regard to statelessness.
  • Strengthen UNHCR as the lead agency in accordance with its mandate on statelessness, including establishment of a dedicated department to focus on this issue.

Donor Governments
  • Require and evaluate protection of stateless populations.
  • Provide new funding to support UN and non-governmental agency work on behalf of stateless people.
Table of Contents

Search

Stay Informed

Sign up for our Email updates

Resources

What I can do to help

Photo Gallery

Act Now!

Donate to Iraq Fund

Join us on Facebook