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Begin New Search Political Geography Global Focus Content Type Journal Article Publishing Institution Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School Publication Year within 25 Years Publication Year within 10 Years Publication Year within 5 Years

1. Responding to Netflix's Stateless Series: Misrecognition and Missed Opportunities

Author:
Lindsey N. Kingston
Publication Date:
08-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
The six episode Netflix series, Stateless, represents a missed opportunity to engage in vital public framing of statelessness. Rather than focusing on the lack of legal nationality, the series falsely equates statelessness with other rights issues central to migration detention. In this collaborative work between a stateless activist and an academic researcher, the authors use Stateless as a starting point for a broader conversation about words, definitions and representation. First, statelessness has partially emerged on the international human rights agenda, yet film and television attention could further foster mainstream understanding of this oft-ignored issue. Second, a critical assessment of the Stateless series highlights how it does (and mostly does not) engage with the issue of statelessness. Third, reflections and recommendations relate to why the series’ title is so problematic, what the media can learn from stateless people and what this conversation means for advocacy.
Topic:
Mass Media, Social Media, Advocacy, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. The Racialised Non-Being of Non-Citizens: Slaves, Migrants and the Stateless

Author:
Samuel Martinez
Publication Date:
08-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Proponents of barring the children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship allege that the United States (‘US’) Constitution’s 14th Amendment was intended to give full citizenship to former slaves and their progeny, and not to benefit the children of foreign-born people. A real-world example that illustrates the dangers of so restricting birthright citizenship is the Dominican Republic, where legal measures have already excluded the children of out-of-status immigrants (who are mostly of Haitian ancestry) from eligibility for birthright citizenship. The effect of this has not been ethnically cleansing Haitian descendants from the Dominican Republic so much as confining them within the country as a stateless underclass of people. The Dominican case therefore shows that US opponents of birthright citizenship for the children of out-of-status non-citizens must answer to the danger that their proposal would create a legally approved hereditary underclass on US soil, more than a century after the abolition of chattel slavery.
Topic:
Migration, Slavery, Stateless Population, and Systemic Racism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. A Teleological and Child-Sensitive Interpretation of a Country of Former Habitual Residence for Stateless Children Born Outside Their Parents’ Country of Nationality or Former Habitual Residence

Author:
Sharelle Anne Aitchison
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
The notion of a country of former habitual residence — as the functional equivalent of a country of nationality for stateless individuals and the reference point for the ‘being persecuted’ inquiry in art 1A(2) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees — is an ill fit for stateless children born outside the country of nationality or former habitual residence of their parent(s). On a plain, ordinary reading of the definition, stateless children born in the country of refuge have neither a nationality nor a former habitual residence and fall outside the ambit of the refugee definition. In a similar fashion, stateless children born prior to arrival in the country of refuge (but not in the country of nationality or designated country of former habitual residence of their parent(s)) are unable to establish the country of reference element, as read with all other indicia of refugeehood. In the context of concurrent family claims, this predicament exposes an obvious inequity of access to refugee status and a consequent risk of refoulement to serious harm, as such children may face return to the country of nationality or former habitual residence of their parent(s). While the dominant tide of jurisprudence supports a literal interpretation of the notion, Michelle Foster and Hélène Lambert have identified a purposive pathway, better aligned with the humanitarian scope of the refugee definition. For such applicants, this interpretation allows for the determination of country of reference in combination with forward-looking considerations on their returnability and risk of persecution upon return. This article endorses such an interpretation and comprehensively charts a child-sensitive approach to applying the criteria for refugee status (historically formulated from an adult-oriented perspective), by exploring what child-specific interests might better inform the notion in the context of the individualised refugee assessment of concurrent family claims.
Topic:
Refugees, Family, Identity, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Children at Risk of Statelessness in the Fight against Terrorism

Author:
Lavina Spieb and Louise Pyne-Jones
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
The departure of ‘foreign fighters’ to join terrorist groups in armed conflicts abroad has led many countries to adopt a policy of citizenship deprivation. This paper demonstrates that citizenship deprivation measures do not have the desired effect for national security, while increasing the risk of statelessness for the children of ‘foreign fighters’. Citizenship deprivation laws in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK and the Netherlands are discussed, in order to view them against international obligations. It concludes that current citizenship deprivation measures are mostly problematic regarding the prohibition of arbitrary citizenship deprivation, the principle of non-discrimination and relevant children’s rights.
Topic:
Terrorism, Children, Citizenship, and Child Soldiers
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. Customary International Law Requiring States to Grant Nationality to Stateless Children Born in Their Territory

Author:
William Thomas Worster
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
In the most recent few years, state practice and opinio juris are increasingly converging to affirm that states must grant nationality to children born in their territory if they would otherwise be stateless. In prior scholarship, this author has argued that there is a customary international law norm requiring states to grant nationality in such cases. Certainly, UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign is a significant part of this development, placing statelessness back on the international agenda, as well as encouraging states to adhere to the statelessness conventions, adopt birth registration and statelessness determination procedures and revise domestic law. Partly due to this campaign, states are increasingly adopting practice and domestic law that provides for nationality from birth for stateless children but are also increasingly stating their opinion that such an approach is desirable, necessary and morally compelling. In fact, it is effectively impossible to identify any state that claims it has the unfettered right to refuse to grant nationality to a stateless child born in its territory. This article will complete a brief survey of recent practice and expressions of opinion, mostly as documented by UNHCR as a part of the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness, to confirm that this norm continues to strengthen under customary international law.
Topic:
International Law, Law, Children, Citizenship, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Statelessness and Young Children

Author:
Aisha K Yousafzai, Joan Lombardi, Erum Mariam, Tina Hyder, and Zarlasht Halaimzai
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
All children deserve to be born with a nationality and identity that protects their rights. Unfortunately, at least 70,000 childrenwho areborn in the 20 major reported non-refugee stateless situations are unable to acquire any nationalityeach year.1These numbers mask the reality that many more children are impacted by conditions that render them effectively stateless(ie, individuals who have a legal nationality, a stateto whichthey can turn, but no documentation of birth)—a term this commentaryhas adopted.2Statelessnessin these contextsstemsfrom a range of conditions including, among others, alack of birth registration, displacement from place of birth or the denial ofthe right to a national identitywheretheparents have a different nationalityfrom the place of birth. The number of young children affected by these, and related,conditions is alarming. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund (‘UNICEF’) reports that one out of four children who are less than five years of age ‘donot officially exist’ because their births have never been officially recorded
Topic:
United Nations, Children, Displacement, Identity, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Views Adopted by the UN Human Rights Committee Under Article 5(4) of the Optional Protocol, concerning Communication No 2918/2016

Author:
Rodolfo Ribeiro Coutinho Marques
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
InDecember 2021, the UN Human Rights Committee(‘HRC’)published its views in a ground-breaking case (Communication No2918/2016),1finding that the Netherlands had violated a child’s right to a nationality by registeringthem as having‘unknown nationality’in theircivil records. The HRCreasoned that, in so doing, the Netherlands hinderedthe child’s access to international protection as a stateless child.This was the first time that the HRChas ruled on the right of a child to acquire a nationality under art 24(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(‘ICCPR’).FACTSThe case revolved arounda petition by DZ, a child born in Utrecht in 2010 to a Chinese mother. In 2004, she was trafficked to the Netherlands as a minorbut managed to escape her traffickers at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. She then applied for asylum, but her application was unsuccessful. In 2006, DZ’s mother was forced into prostitution. Two years later, she broke out of her captivity and reported the situation to the police, which gave her the right to a temporary status while the investigation was undergoing. After an unsuccessful, year-long investigation, her temporary residence permit was revoked, and her status changed to ‘illegal alien [sic]’.Moreover, DZ’s biological father, who did not recognise paternity, was not in contact with themor with DZ’s mother.*Teaching Assistant and PhD Candidatein International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.I would liketo thank Dr Katia Bianchini and Professor Laura van Waas for theirinsightful feedback and comments. The usual caveats apply. An earlier version of this case note was published on EJIL:Talk! as a blog post.1Human Rights Committee, Views Adopted by the Committee under Article 5(4) of the Optional Protocol,Concerning Communication No2918/2016, UN Doc CCPR/C/130/D/2918/2016(20 January 2021) (‘Communication No 2918/2016’).
Topic:
Human Rights, International Cooperation, United Nations, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. A Typology of Statelessness

Author:
Benedikt Buechel
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Although statelessness within the modern state system has many facets, there has not been any attempt to work out a formal typology. When conceptualising statelessness in singular terms, theorists miss something important: they fail to capture the full moral scope of statelessness. This article addresses this shortcoming. It is divided into four parts. First, I will show how statelessness is categorised under the UN’s framework. Second, I will turn to legal and social theory to argue that statelessness can be best understood through the two concepts of responsibility and recognition. Third, I will identify three different subtypes of statelessness. They derive from the source of nationality deprivation and include voluntary statelessness, structural statelessness and denigrative statelessness. Finally, I will offer some concluding remarks.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Nationalism, United Nations, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. Breaking the Presumption That Applicants of Statelessness Determination Procedures Are Foreign

Author:
Paola Pelletier Quinones
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article considers the situation of those who apply for a determination of their status as a stateless person but could, nonetheless, be nationals of the state in which they apply. Cases of in situ statelessness provide the most opportunity for the identification of these situations. After having identified 23 formal Statelessness Determination Procedures (‘SDP’) adopted as of 2020 from 23 countries, it is conclusive that these norms presume the applicant is foreign. However, eight countries have been mapped with safeguards in their SDP norms recognising the possibility that there could be identified applicants who may be nationals and what to do in cases of doubt. These safeguards are adopted by four countries in the Americas (Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay and Argentina) and four countries in Europe (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey). These constitute good practices that should be taken into consideration by further SDP norms adopted in the future, modifications of current SDP norms and statistics. This issue constitutes a ‘red flag’ for raising awareness of discriminatory state policies that assume stateless applicants are foreign and should receive second-class citizenship (naturalization), rather than refer the case to the corresponding national civil registry authorities and facilitate the access to nationality. The objective of this article has not yet been analysed by doctrine or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Topic:
United Nations, Refugees, Identity, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10. Towards a Stateless Standpoint Epistemology

Author:
Haqqi Bahram
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Opening the discussion about epistemology in statelessness research, this commentary advocates for a stateless standpoint epistemology grounded in experiences of the stateless, their collective intersubjectivities and their inalienable epistemic agency. By interrogating how and what knowledge is produced on the issue, I argue that stateless standpoint epistemology is an invitation to realign our knowledge of statelessness vis-à-vis the accepted citizenist modes of knowledge. While such an epistemology may need time to take its legitimate place within statelessness research, the mission can start already by acknowledging the epistemic agency of the stateless, supporting emerging stateless researchers and denouncing extractive research practices that render naturalised knowledge on and about the stateless. This recognition is needed at all levels of research carried out with the stateless, not only for the significant and transformative role that thestateless standpoint epistemology can play, but also for research to be truly a venue for epistemic justice in the face of the injustice created by world structures of citizenship.
Topic:
Citizenship, Research, Justice, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

11. 'Humanising' Statelessness through an Artistic Approach

Author:
Md Mizanur Rahman
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
In this article I critically examine an art-based approach to statelessness in institutional settings, to show how art can produce alternative insights on statelessness. Drawing from ethnographic observation, I show how an art-based approach tries to go beyond the predominant legalistic and political frames and representations of statelessness, but stay married to the same legal and political discourses. I found the art-based approaches observed do not subscribe to the idea that statelessness is only a legal anomaly and instead emphasise the creation of empathy for stateless individuals or groups. This humanises statelessness by showing their human vulnerability and creatively recognising their hope and agency. Regardless, artistic approaches can struggle to challenge the legalistic and political nature of the problem. It remains a question whether such approaches are appropriately promoting the views, perceptions and feelings of stateless persons themselves, as their participation in creating such art projects are minimal. As such, I argue for an ‘ethnographic turn in art practices’, which can ensure the participation of stateless people in the process of creating and demonstrating art. I believe this ‘turn’ could play a crucial role in the development of statelessness studies.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Law, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

12. Addressing Statelessness through the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (‘ICERD’)

Author:
Michiel Hoornick
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Discrimination is one of the root causes for deprivation and denial of nationality. This work presents an analysis of the right to nationality under art 5(d)(iii) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the interpretation of the obligations under art 2, related to this right by its monitoring body, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This reflection focuses on obligations regarding deprivation of nationality, acquisition of nationality and other obligations to facilitate and fulfil the right to nationality of the individuals living within its jurisdiction. An assessment is made on the effectiveness of the Convention and its Committee in protecting the right to nationality.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Race, Discrimination, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. ‘Legal Identity for All’ and Statelessness Opportunity and Threat at the Junction of Public and Private International Law

Author:
Bronwen Manby
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article considers the impact of Target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’), ‘to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration’ on the objective of eradicating statelessness. This SDG Target has given a significant boost to initiatives for the strengthening of civil registration and identification systems, supported by the United Nations and World Bank. Yet its impact on the resolution of statelessness is not clear, because of the immense complexity of the definition of ‘legal identity’. Proposed definitions, adopted after the target was established, fail to take on board the challenges involved in cross-border recognition of civil status documents and the determination of nationality of a child for parents who hold no documents. The article concludes that SDG Target 16.9 is both an opportunity and a threat. If the objective of providing universal ‘legal identity’ is to have a positive impact for stateless persons there is a need for new engagement with the regulation of civil status in private international law, and new insistence in public international law on legal frameworks that facilitate recognition and registration of the different elements of a person’s identity, including nationality, even and especially where they are officially in doubt. Short cuts in this process risk long delays.
Topic:
International Law, Law, Identity, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. Nomads and the Struggle for a Legal Identity

Author:
Heather Alexander
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Over the past century, governments around the world have greatly expanded civil registration and the issuance of identity documents of all kinds. The process of identifying and registering individuals is sometimes called establishing their ‘legal identity’.1 Establishing a legal identity is crucial for people to access many rights.2It is also a basic prerequisite for establishing a nationality. A legal identity is also important for governments to surveil their populations. Yet, as more research is done on the legal identity of nomadic and mobile peoples,3 it is emerging that establishing a legal identity is not easy for them, nor is it a panacea that automatically helps them access their rights. Instead, it can lead to their assimilation.4 This comment summarises my recent research into the establishment of legal identity for nomadic and mobile peoples, uncovering important and disturbing new insights into this fraught process.
Topic:
Law, Identity, Nomad, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Feminist Foresight in Statelessness Century-Old Citizenship Equality Campaigns

Author:
Deirdre Brennan
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
It may have appeared to many working in the statelessness sector, or those campaigning against gender discriminatory nationality laws, that until the launch of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights in 2014, efforts to eradicate such laws were largely only coordinated on a national level. This article, however, uncovers a hidden period in statelessness history: the citizenship equality campaigns of the early 1900s. Through an exploration of these campaigns, their vibrant tactics and eccentric characters, this article provides a feminist revisionist history of statelessness activism and academia that aims to adjust dominant narratives in contemporary statelessness literature.
Topic:
Citizenship, Feminism, Equality, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. ‘Rainbow Statelessness’ — Between Sexual Citizenship and Legal Theory Exploring the Statelessness–LGBTIQ+ Nexus

Author:
Thomas McGee
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article responds to the literature gap within both discourses on ‘sexual citizenship’ and statelessness studies on the nexus between statelessness and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (‘SOGIESC’). It explores the intersectional experiences of stateless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer plus (‘LGBTIQ+’) individuals as well as circumstances in which discrimination on SOGIESC grounds can cause statelessness for LGBTIQ+ persons or their children. In addition to rare reports of arbitrary deprivation of citizenship from LGBTIQ+ persons, the non-recognition of post-transition statuses and intersex realities may lead to situations of statelessness. Finally, complex legislation and administrative practices around assisted reproductive technology — and especially international commercial surrogacy — can leave children born within ‘rainbow families’ at particular risk of statelessness. In arguing that a global nexus does indeed exist between SOGIESC and statelessness, this article calls for further empirical research in order to provide greater nuance and context-specific understandings of the intersectional experiences and causes of statelessness for LGBTIQ+ individuals around the world.
Topic:
Citizenship, LGBT+, Sexuality, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

17. Symposium Introduction Identifying a Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue between Statelessness and Slavery

Author:
Alice Eckstein
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Researchers working on slavery or statelessness will know there are overlaps in condition and population between stateless persons and those living in conditions of slavery, as well as common problems in carrying forth work focused on these communities. These overlaps are easy enough to identify, and the dangers presented by one status to fall into the other are similarly apparent. A stateless person is likely to experience restricted access to financial services, education, healthcare and legal services, as well as limitations on regular movement across borders. These restrictions create vulnerability to exploitative labour practices, including slavery. Those people who are living in slavery, or who have exited slavery, may have moved across borders or lost documentation as part of their exploitation. They risk their ‘citizen’ identity and the state’s protections, and may thus be exposed to the risk of becoming stateless. Listing similarities and common or overlapping risk factors aside, what knowledge and practices can be shared among scholars working on these two separate violations of human rights? Where and how can researchers identify similar challenges and resources, as well as collaborate on a common research agenda? This symposium brings together researchers and scholars working in various ways on responses to slavery to offer their perspectives on challenges and paths forward that may resonate with those engaged in understanding statelessness. These range from the challenge of effective measurement, to tracking legislation, to the activation of local communities and the lived experiences of survivors. Working as Programme Manager on Modern Slavery, I hoped in coordinating this symposium to identify areas where slavery researchers can consider their own work and present it here to the statelessness research community. I was fortunate in engaging contributors who have richly engaged with these questions.
Topic:
Health, Law, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

18. Lessons Learned from Modern Slavery Addressing Shared Challenges in Measurement for Statelessness Researchers

Author:
Davina P. Durgana
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Modern slavery and statelessness research efforts present an opportunity for a collaborative and shared research agenda. This discussion focuses on the importance of measurement for both modern slavery and statelessness research, a proposed shared research agenda for statelessness and modern slavery in the Americas, and challenges statelessness researchers face that can be addressed by best practices from the modern slavery field. This discussion is informed by the work of Walk Free — made possible by the Minderoo Foundation — a leader in the modern slavery space and producer of the Global Slavery Index ( ‘GSI’).1 The GSI is the world’s most comprehensive study on the prevalence of modern slavery and enables us to refine our thinking on how to better respond to this crime, and how to prevent modern slavery in the future.2 Effective measurement of modern slavery is the cornerstone of evidence-based policy making in our field and can have a similarly powerful impact on statelessness research. This symposium on the challenges, solutions and best practices of measurement in modern slavery — and how it can inform statelessness research — is a critical opportunity to ensure that all stakeholders feel empowered to interpret and use our collective findings.
Topic:
Governance, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. A ‘Place’ for Stateless People? Connecting Place-Based Research with Statelessness

Author:
Alison Gardner and Phil Northall
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This symposium contribution presents something of a paradox: what can techniques that are designed to address policy and practice in a particular space offer to researching the issue of statelessness? Statelessness, after all, is often characterised as a condition of legal and sometimes physical limbo. Connections between statelessness and forms of contemporary slavery also tend to focus on the ramifications of movement. For example, the trafficking of people across borders results in many people losing evidence and benefits of citizenship, at least temporarily. In cases where people are exploited by members of their own family or by organised gangs operating within their own community, the ability to return to their home nation may be severely compromised. As a foreign national in the United Kingdom, being without a ‘conclusive grounds’ decision in regard to your claim of modern slavery can be detrimental to your case for asylum,1 leaving you effectively stateless.However, if we want to address the challenges faced by individuals in respect to statelessness, it is also valuable to understand the personal, local, cultural, legislative and structural context in which those issues occur. Place-based approaches provide a framework for this synthesis. The British Academy describes place-based policy-making as ‘aligning the design and resourcing of policy at the most appropriate scale of place, in order to develop meaningful solutions, which improve people's lives’.2 The optimal size and scope of any place-based initiative can vary, but relate to the nature of the problem and to resources, institutions, assets and communities that contribute to improving outcomes. Place-based research, policy-making and activism are often developed in response to complex social problems with the aim of achieving transformation.3This approach may be targeted at specific population groups or communities, or concentrate on a particular issue in a given location. ‘Place’ may also be thought of not just as a material concept, but also as the product of social relations, networks and the integration of global and local influences. It is constructed through time, and contested through power relations, creating an arena for debate, conflict and co-production.4Much antislavery activity in the UK is now delivered by local place-based partnerships, which bring together statutory and non-statutory stakeholders across a defined area to offer a wide spectrum of prevention activity, awareness raising and survivor support. While the approach to modern slavery in the UK has been dominated by a criminal justice framing at the national level, partnerships at the local level enable a more nuanced response, which can incorporate attention to the wider ‘social determinants’ of modern slavery including societal drivers for exploitation, legislative and structural barriers to assistance, and community and corporate responsibilities in response to the problem. Place-based responses also offer a forum to engage a wider cross-section of voices — including those directly affected by exploitation — towards identifying solutions and assets that can help individuals and communities to flourish. We can illustrate this in more depth through considering a case study of the development of place-based antislavery action and research in Nottinghamshire, a county in the Midlands of the UK.
Topic:
Governance, Identity, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. Tracking the Implementation Gap Empirically Assessing the Translation of International Antislavery Commitments in Domestic Legislation Globally

Author:
Katarina Schwarz and Jean Allain
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
The prohibition against slavery in international law is unique in several significant ways. First, it has been recognised by the International Court of Justice as a jus cogens norm carrying obligations erga omnes.1 That is to say, it is a norm of international law binding on all states, from which no derogation is permissible and violation of which attracts the legal interest of the international community as a whole entailing an obligation to cooperate to bring such a breach to an end.2Second, it represents the first universal effort enshrined in international law to influence the domestic legislation of all states on a normative question.3 Third, it is often seen as the first global human rights movement and the root of international human rights law, centring the concept of individual human dignity within the traditionally statist constructs of international law.4 And finally, given its importance at the international level, it is often presumed that its prohibition at the domestic level is already complete everywhere
Topic:
International Law, Slavery, Courts, Justice, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

21. The Conditions of 'Savages'? Statelessness, Politics, and Race in Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism

Author:
Michiel Bot
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article explores the ways in which race enters our analyses of statelessness when we build those analyses (partly) on Hannah Arendt’s arguments in ‘Imperialism’. Through close readings of Arendt’s ambivalent use of race in this text, the article demonstrates that critically confronting Arendt’s repeated comparison of stateless people to ‘barbarians’ and ‘savages’ is useful for confronting the connections between statelessness, politics and race in the present. The article argues that such a critical confrontation can yield three things. First, the realisation that thinking through the politics enacted by de jure or de facto stateless people who have been forced to live in the conditions of ‘savages’ requires that we situate this politics within the history of imperialism and post-colonialism. Second, an awareness of the need to consider the connections between the political production of statelessness and the political production of race. And third, the realisation that an effective politics of people who have been forced into de jure or de facto statelessness must include a politics of anti-racism.
Topic:
Governance, Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

22. The Right to a Nationality and the Right to Adequate Housing An Analysis of the Intersection of Two Largely ‘Invisible’ Human Rights Violations

Author:
Benjamin Gronowski
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Millions of individuals around the world face challenges enjoying their right to a nationality, and millions more face challenges enjoying their right to adequate housing. While these human rights violations are recognised in general terms, little research has considered the extent to which these human rights abuses intersect as stateless persons face violations of specific socioeconomic rights, especially the right to adequate housing. This research attempts to fill that gap. This analysis explores the term adequate housing and the various legal instruments that enshrine this right, as well as the unique challenges faced by stateless persons in its enjoyment. This research argues that states have failed to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing for stateless persons in a number of contexts and that these failures are particularly acute for stateless persons with additional marginalised identities, which can then result in additional human rights violations. This analysis examines how previous policy solutions have failed to adequately consider the unique needs of inadequately housed stateless persons and calls attention to the need for more holistic and inclusive approaches to realise the right to adequate housing for all, which must include stateless persons.
Topic:
Human Rights, Housing, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

23. Assessment of the #IBelong Campaign Mid-Point and the High-Level Segment on Statelessness

Author:
Carol Batchelor
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
7 October 2019 marked a critical moment in the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness.1 This decade long undertaking, launched in 2014 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’), reached its mid-point this year. As part of the annual Executive Committee meeting, UNHCR held a High Level Segment on Statelessness to assess the status of the Campaign: achievements and successes in the first five years from 2014–19, and remaining areas to be addressed in the last half of the Campaign from 2019–24.2 In order to concretise efforts to fill any identified gaps, and thereby end statelessness by 2024, participants including states, international and regional organisations, and non-governmental organisations (‘NGOs’) were invited to make concrete, timebound and measurable pledges for action. In a watershed moment for the Campaign, it received over 350 pledges from a scope of actors to take steps that will play a role in ending statelessness by 2024.3Statelessness is a surreal problem for those afflicted by it. Without a nationality in any country, stateless persons are often relegated to the fringes of society. Many stateless people are not able to undertake daily functions necessary for survival, such as having a legitimate job or doing things that require identification and legal status such as marrying, going to school, getting medical treatment, owning property or traveling. Even leaving the house to shop for groceries can result in detention when an individual cannot show who they are, where they come from, or where they belong in legal terms. In a world composed of states, statelessness is a condition of exclusion, fear and a lack of attachment or belonging
Topic:
United Nations, Refugees, Humanitarian Crisis, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. Resisting Erasure The Politics of Reckoning with Statelessness in the Arts

Author:
Nicoletta Enria
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Stateless art interlocutors are reclaiming the discourse on statelessness through their creative productions. By reshaping and contesting statelessness to elicit an empathetic connection, they effectively reshuffle the European, and potentially global, system of knowledge on statelessness. First by rejecting the term and redefining it in terms of an ontologically real or delocalised ‘home’, then by shedding light on the universality of experience that exposes that membership must not be based on nation-state boundaries. Finally, stateless art interlocutors reflect on the colonial legacies of their plights, shedding light on historical connections and breaking colonial stereotypes that define stateless peoples as victims worthy of European rescue. This dissents from the discourse of statelessness as a ‘curse’ to be eradicated. Whilst still acknowledging statelessness as a source of torment and pain due to the context of becoming stateless being one of exile and conflict, and the anguish potentially contingent in a lack of a national identity, it does so in a dignified, empowering manner allowing affected populations a voice and agency. This is a perspective that must be taken into account in policy-circles. Through the arts, policy-makers can not only listen to the lived experience of affected populations, but be immersed in their experiential world. Moreover, others can become involved to help bring attention to statelessness in the arts: follow your local galleries, and urge them to support artists working on statelessness, and to include these voices in their collections. The radical empathy fostered in these artworks makes statelessness harder and harder to discard — leaving an indelible mark in our minds. Swaitat’s initial lesson rings truer than ever; he disappeared but he did not die – we must not let his story and that of other stateless art interlocutors slip through the cracks. In 2018 the Statelessness & Citizenship Review had an open call for artworks responding to the Review’s focus on advancing understandings of statelessness and citizenship phenomena and challenges.35 The winning artwork Critical Massby Wasim zaid Habashneh beautifully ties together many of the themes and styles adopted by the stateless art interlocutors I worked with, of home, global community, unity in difference and the universality of experience. The piece, created using a traditional Jordanian sand art in discarded fluorescent tubes with pixelated patterns, incorporates Habashneh’s architectural background in its composition moulded with larger concepts of home, belonging and identity. Critical Mass means the sufficient number to achieve a result — here Habashneh uses this as the title to prompt the question: what makes civil society? Critical Mass seems to resemble the shape of a world map, with the moving tubes structured with different slithers of colour. This alludes to a global community, whilst also delineating difference in the different colours. This also underlines how stateless people and non-citizens are equally as deserving of belonging in a global community, but should not have to erase their identity to become a part of it. Moreover, the motion of the tubes importantly signifies how societies are not static but are in fact always changing. In fact, what statelessness is and how it configures in societies will always be changing, much like shown by the fluid component of sand. Habashneh opens up our understanding of identity and belonging as territorially marked and fixed, but as always changing and able to incorporate stateless people and non-citizens, often excluded and considered anomalies. Critical Mass shows us how our perception of who and what makes a society must remain fluid and open to what the ‘critical mass’ for it to flourish is. Especially one that leaves no one behind.
Topic:
Arts, Feminism, Stateless Population, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

25. Rising Statelessness Due to Disappearing Island States

Author:
Marija Dobric
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Scientific prognoses have shown that by the year 2100, several low-lying island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati will disappear due to rising sea levels. The submergence of whole territories will have consequences including the displacement of a huge number of islanders. In that context, the question of how to protect their human rights in their future host states is of great importance. In fact, their human rights protection will most likely prove even more difficult if disappearing island states are considered to have lost statehood. Without the nationality of any state, those displaced islanders will be stateless under international law. In this article, the author assesses whether displaced island populations are sufficiently protected by existing international law norms or whether the international community is called upon to create new rules addressing these future challenges.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Maritime, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus