Preview
- What does 'Stateless' mean?
- What causes statelessness?
The 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as someone who is not considered a legal citizen by any country. De jure statelessness means that a person is not considered a legal citizen under the law of any country. De facto statelessness means that a person is ‘stateless in practice.’ This is based on their lack of access to rights and protection, which other legal citizens otherwise have. This lack of access to rights and protection could be caused by a person’s lack of government documents, if they live in a country where state authorities place importance on people having specific documents in order to access rights and protection. If a person cannot rely on their state to ensure their rights and protection, they are de facto stateless.
Sometimes a person may have the right to legal citizenship status, but they are unable to prove it because of barriers.
Statelessness can have different causes. Laws, policies or practices can be designed to deny legal citizenship status to people. People may actively decide not to apply for legal citizenship. Weak administration might be a barrier when people apply for legal citizenship status. Weak infrastructure might be a barrier when people try to access official services when seeking to establish their legal citizenship status. Causes for statelessness might be intentional or unintentional.
Because of de jure or de facto statelessness, stateless persons have almost no legal protection. They have very limited access to freedoms, rights and opportunities. Many of them face discrimination and abuse as a result and are unable to live a safe and dignified life.
Governments have a responsibility under international human rights law to ensure that no-one is stateless. Having a recognised legal citizenship status is a fundamental human right that everyone should have access to, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Reflection/Discussion
- Have you ever seen, heard about or experienced any of the situations above?
- If you were affected by each situation, how would you feel?
- Can you think of any other barriers that could result in statelessness?
- Do you know anyone who is de jure or de facto stateless?
Focus on Myanmar:
Statelessness on the Thai-Myanmar Border
According to the Thailand Migration Report 2019 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (United Nations Thematic Working Group 2019), there were nearly 100,000 persons from Myanmar residing in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. About half of these persons were registered with the UNHCR.
UNHCR publishes updates on the number of persons from Myanmar living in refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border on the website: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/thailand
Not all of the persons included in these updates are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
There are no reliable statistics on how many of them have some form of legal citizenship documents from Myanmar, although it is widely assumed that many do not have any. This puts them at great risk of statelessness. Approximately 30% of the camp population was born in Thailand and many others came from remote areas of Myanmar or areas controlled by ethnic-based armed groups.
Activity
Visit the website to see the current population overview of persons from Myanmar living in refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. Look at past monthly population overviews. Do you notice any trends?
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