STATELESSNESS

If your name’s not on the door – an update on citizens excluded from Assam’s Register

Assams Register

It has been six months since the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951 received its final update.  I have written about the continued impact of updating Assam’s Register in previous blogs here and here.  Around 2 million people are excluded after the final count. More and more is written about this crisis in the making, the impact it …

Guest appearance on the European Network on Statelessness Blog

Guest appearance

My recent analysis of the CJEU’s judgment in Bilali C-720/17 on statelessness and subsidiary protection is making a guest appearance on the excellent and informative blog by the European Network on Statelessness. The European Network on Statelessness is the collaboration of non-governmental organisations, academic initiatives, and individual experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe.  As well as its weekly blog, …

Unsettled Status – The CJEU’s judgment in Bilali C-720/17 on statelessness and subsidiary protection

Bilali 2

I wrote about the opinion of the Advocate General in this case earlier this year.  In this blog I consider the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Bilali v Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl C-720/17. The decision of the CJEU is that subsidiary protection could be revoked even though the mistake …

A framework for dignity – states recently acceded to the Statelessness Conventions

Statelessness Conventions

In an earlier blog I considered some of the countries which had not yet acceded to the two Statelessness Conventions and which had no formal protective framework to avoid, reduce or mitigate the effects of statelessness. People are stateless or become stateless for many different reasons.  What they have in common, wherever they are in the world, is the effect …

It’s cold out there – Non-parties to the Statelessness Conventions

Non-parties

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency describes the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness as “The key international conventions addressing statelessness. They are complemented by international human rights treaties and provisions relevant to the right to a nationality”. But still there are many states that are non-parties and have …

Forever delayed – statelessness “under consideration” in Lebanon

Lebanon

In this blog I consider the causes of statelessness in Lebanon.  The situation in Lebanon is complex, for historic reasons, due to discriminatory nationality laws, administrative challenges and its large long-term refugee population, primarily from Syria and Palestine.  There is enough material to fill a whole book, never mind just the one post. In this blog I focus on statelessness …

Mr Bilali and the uncertain country of origin – statelessness and subsidiary protection in the CJEU case of Bilali C-720/17

Bilali C720-17

What does the case of Bilali in the Court of Justice of the European Union tell us about the responsibility of states to deal appropriately and effectively with stateless people living within their borders?  This blog considers the non-binding opinion of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Bilali v …

I am a person from here – the Sabah stateless struggling without citizenship in Malaysia

Sabah stateless

In this blog I consider the stateless population in Sabah state, part of Malaysia, how and why they are in this precarious position and what, if anything, Malaysia is doing to reduce the number of stateless people in Sabah.   Who are the Sabah stateless? Sabah is a state in Malaysia and part of the island of Borneo.  Sabah became …

You can’t go home again: the plight of Syria’s stateless Kurds

Plight Stateless Kurds

“You have stumbled on in darkness, you have been pulled in opposite directions, you have faltered, you have missed the way, but, child, this is the chronicle of the earth. And now, because you have known madness and despair, and because you will grow desperate again before you come to evening, we who have stormed the ramparts of the furious …

Of woman born – how gender discriminatory nationality laws contribute to statelessness in Nepal

Of woman born Nepal

An estimated 5.4 million individuals in Nepal (24 per cent of the population aged 16 years and above of Nepal’s 30 million population) do not have citizenship documentation. I wrote about all the basic rights that are unavailable to a stateless person here.  Statelessness in a population arises for a number of reasons such as minority group discrimination, migration issues, …