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Blitz, Brad K.; Lynch, Maureen --- "Statelessness and the Deprivation of Nationality" [2011] ELECD 168; in Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen (eds), "Statelessness and Citizenship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Statelessness and Citizenship

Editor(s): Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800679

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Statelessness and the Deprivation of Nationality

Author(s): Blitz, Brad K.; Lynch, Maureen

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

1. Statelessness and the deprivation of
nationality
Brad K. Blitz and Maureen Lynch




Source: © Greg Constantine 2010.


Figure 1.1 In southern Nepal, a Dalit man and his grandson rest in the
morning. The man's family has lived in the Terai for over five
generations, yet he is still without Nepalese citizenship.

Under the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, a
stateless person is an individual not considered as a national by any state
under the operation of its law.1 Although statelessness is prohibited under
international instruments, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) estimates, that there may be as many as 12 million
stateless people in the world.2 The existence of stateless populations chal-
lenges some of the central tenets of international law and the human

1
2 Statelessness and citizenship

rights discourse that have developed over the past 60 years. Most impor-
tantly, the reality of statelessness is at odds with the right to nationality,
which is explicitly recorded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR). Article 15 of the UDHR implicitly acknowledges the principle
whereby an individual's nationality is linked to his or her identity, and it
states, `no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied
the right to change his nationality'.3
The right to nationality has been further elaborated in two key inter-
national conventions which have brought the concept of statelessness
into the United Nations framework and will be explored in greater ...