1. The Right To A Nationality: No Time To Be Complacent
- Author:
- Erika Feller
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- The right to a nationality is often taken for granted. Over the course of decades, UN member states have enshrined this right through fundamental instruments, notably the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet conservative estimates hold that approximately 10 million people spread across every continent are denied a nationality.1 Some, but not all, are refugees. Collectively, these individuals are stateless—they lack any claim to a nationality recognized or assumed by any state. For many years, statelessness was a forgotten issue, relegated to the realm of state sovereignty prerogatives. Recently, states and the UN have begun to focus on the pressing nature of the problem. They have made progress in addressing statelessness as a global, collectively shared challenge. However, the UN target of eradicating statelessness by 2024, while a fine aspiration, continues to face significant hurdles. These obstacles include a serious dearth of informa- tion about the problem’s scope, discriminatory national legislation and policies that obstruct UN efforts, an ambiguous international legal framework, and the absence of solutions that are accessible to stateless individuals.
- Topic:
- Nationalism, Sovereignty, United Nations, Refugee Issues, Law, Citizenship, Nation-State, Legal Sector, and Stateless Population
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus