Statelessness And Homelessness

First to address this problem was the newly formed United Nations in 1945. Since then, the stateless have been described as „not considered as nationals by any state in the world“. Those affected are often of racial and ethnic minorities, who are usually victims of state repression and discrimination. Many of these minorities live in states where they are eligible for citizenship but are deprived of this right. This right is recorded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 15; and it states that ‘(i) Everyone has the right to a nationality, (ii) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality‘. (UDHR; 1948)
The problem with statelessness and the stateless is that, although
it is a widely recognized problem there is hardly a solution in the short run. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is trying to work with the stateless, however there are about 209,000 cases being assisted out of total of 12 million. „Possessing nationality is essential for full participation in society and prerequisite for the enjoyment of the full range or human rights“ (UNHCR, 2011b). (Staples, 2012)
The main actors in the statelessness problem are de jure stateless and de facto stateless. De jure stateless are those who ‘have access to travel documents issued by domestic goverments under a international agreement‘ but are denied a citizenship. On the other hand the de facto stateless are usually identity groups without their own homeland but with a citizenship. Thousands of these people, would be willing to return to their countries of origin but they fear prosecution, or they are not eligible for readmittion in their country. (Blitz, Sawyer; 2011)
Two main conventions that addressed the problem of statelessness took place in 1954 and 1961. Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons contributed to the international law with the definition of ‘stateless person‘. Those who are acknowledged as stateless were provided with requirement to have the same rights as citizens – freedom of religion and education. It also require the freedom of movement and for the States to provide travel documents. (UNHCR, 2014) Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness completes the Convention from 1954 and together they form ‘legal framework to address statelesness‘. This convention gives protection and prevents from statelesness at birth. It also prevents from becoming stateless later in life when state nationals deprive a person of a nationality. (UNHCR, 2014)
Organizations, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights League or Human Rights Watch, are trying to rise awareness of this problem.
Their main interests include giving the stateless rights so they can be somewhat protected, and reducing the number of stateless people. These organizations also try to abolish, or at least lessen, the issue of denationalization, which according to Amnesty International (2013) is a ‘violation of fundamental human rights‘. These NGOs address the problem of statelessness through advocacy, prosecution and legal aid by which they support the work of UNHCR. At the same time, ‘UNHCR continues to provide technical advice to governments to reform nationality laws, policies and procedures to close legal gaps that may lead to statelessness, to ensure that stateless people can acquire a nationality and that they are identified and protected‘. (UNHCR;
2015)
There are many causes behind statelessness; most of them are due to the change of the political system, discrimination, or environmental changes. State succession is one of those causes; people become stateless when they ‘fail to acquire nationality under the new legislation or administration‘ (Blitz, Lynch; 2011; pp. 6). Another cause can be discrimination and deprivation of nationality when a community or individuals are unable to acquire nationality due to discriminatory laws. Environmental changes might force people to leave their countries due to rising sea levels, which could create massive migration and statelesness issues. (Blitz, Lynch; 2011)
In conclusion, statelesness is a recognized problem that is being addressed by different international and transnational actors.
Actions are being taken by NGOs, such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, which contribute to work of UNHCR all around the world. Even though all these actors are contributing to the progress, statelessness will be a problem for a long run. In the past, 2 conventions took place and established the basic laws regarding the stateless and together they form a legal framework addressing statelessness. Causes behind statelessness differ and the main ones include state succession, and discrimination and deprivation of nationality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Blitz, Brad K., and Maureen Lynch. Statelessness and Citizenship: A Comparative Study on the Benefits of Nationality. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2011; pp. 1 - 10.
2. Sawyer, Caroline, and Brad K. Blitz. Statelessness in the European Union: Displaced, Undocumented, Unwanted. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011; pp. 3 - 6.
3. Staples, Kelly. Retheorising Statelessness: A Background Theory of Membership in World Politics, 2012; pp. 1 - 3.
4. United Nations; Covention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954 Convention, UN Treaty Series
http://www.unhcr.org/3bbb25729.html
5. United Nations; Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961 Convention, UN Treaty Series, http://www.unhcr.org/3bbb286d8.html
6. United Nations General Assembly; Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
7. United Nations General Assembly; Ending Statelessness, Global Appeal 2015 Update, http://www.unhcr.org/5461e5f0b.html