Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stateless Persons and the UN High Commission for Refugees

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights

Synonyms

De facto stateless persons; De jure stateless persons; Statelessness

Definition

Stateless persons rely on the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as the primary organization responsible to address statelessness.

A stateless person is someone who is not a national of any State (Staples 2012). International law, in particular, defines a stateless person as someone “who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law” (Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons). This definition of what is known as de jure (in law) statelessness is adopted in other treaties and legislation and is considered customary international law (Foster and Lambert 2016). However, it does not include de facto (in practice) stateless persons who may have the documentation to prove citizenship yet are unable or unwilling to rely on the State for protection afforded to other citizens (Bianchini 2018). Defining statelessness continues to be...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Albarazi Z, Tucker J (2017) Chapter 6: Challenging the disunity of statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa. In: Bloom T, Tonkiss K, Cole P (eds) Understanding statelessness: lives in limbo. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt H (1968) The origins of totalitarianism. Harcourt, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbieri WA Jr (1998) Ethics of citizenship: immigration and group rights in Germany. Duke University Press, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  • Batchelor C (2005) The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons: implementation within the European Union member states and recommendations for harmonization. Refuge 22(2):31–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauböck R (2008) Stakeholder citizenship: an idea whose time has come? Migration Policy Institute, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Belton KA (2011) The neglected non-citizen: statelessness and liberal political theory. J Glob Ethics 7(1):59–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib S (2004) The rights of others: aliens, residents and citizens. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchini K (2018) Protecting stateless persons: the implementation of the convention relating to the Status of the Stateless Persons across EU states. Brill Nijhoff, Leiden

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blitz B (2017) Chapter 5: The state and the stateless: the legacy of Hannah Arendt reconsidered. In: Bloom T, Tonkiss K, Cole P (eds) Understanding statelessness: lives in limbo. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloom T et al (eds) (2017) Understanding statelessness: lives in limbo. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownlie I (1963) The relations of nationality in public international law. Br Yearb Int Law 39:284–364

    Google Scholar 

  • Cabrera L (2010) The practice of global citizenship. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Caney S (2001) International distributive justice. Polit Stud 49(5):974–997

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carens JH (2008) The rights of irregular migrants. Ethics Int Aff 22(2):163–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carens JH (2013) The ethics of immigration. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Case of the Yean and Bosico Children v. The Dominican Republic, Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACrtHR) (2005, Sept 8). Available via Refworld. https://www.refworld.org/cases,IACRTHR,44e497d94.html. Accessed 4 Feb 2020

  • Cole P (2000) Philosophies of exclusion: liberal political theory and immigration. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards A, Waas LV (2014a) Statelessness. In: The Oxford handbook of refugee and forced migration studies. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Available via Oxford Handbooks. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199652433.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199652433-e-023. Accessed 30 July 2019

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards A, Waas LV (eds) (2014b) Nationality and statelessness under international law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Engstrom MM, Obi N (2001) Evaluation of UNHCR’s role and activities in relation to statelessness. United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees Evaluation and Policy Unit. Available via UNHCR website. https://www.unhcr.org/en-ie/3b961ab14.pdf. Accessed 30 July 2019

  • Foster M, Lambert H (2016) Statelessness as a human rights issue: a concept whose time has come. Int J Refug Law 28(4):564–584

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibney MJ (2009) Statelessness and the right to citizenship. Forced Migr Rev 32:50–51. Available via https://www.fmreview.org/statelessness/gibney. Accessed 30 July 2019

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibney MJ (2011) The rights of non-citizens to membership. In: Sawyer C, Blitz B (eds) Statelessness in the European Union: displaced, undocumented, unwanted. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibney MJ (2014) Statelessness and citizenship in ethical and political perspective. In: Edwards A, Waas LV (eds) Nationality and statelessness under international law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 44–63

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Goris et al (2009) Statelessness: what it is and why it matters. Forced Migr Rev 32:4–6. Available via FMR. https://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/statelessness/goris-harrington-kohn.pdf. Accessed 29 July 2019

  • Hayden P (2008) From exclusion to containment: Arendt, sovereign power, and statelessness. SWB 3(2):248–269

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin E (2004) The neurotic citizen. Citizsh Stud 8(3):217–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manly M (2012) UNHCR’s mandate and activities to address statelessness in Europe. Eur J Migr Law 14:261–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manly M (2014) UNHCR’s mandate and activities to address statelessness. In: Edwards A, Waas LV (eds) Nationality and statelessness under international law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Manly M, Persaud S (2009) UNHCR and responses to statelessness. Forced Migr Rev 32:7–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Manly M, Waas LV (2014) The state of statelessness research: a human rights imperative. Tilburg Law Rev 19(1–2):3–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mantu S (2018) “Terrorist” citizens and the human right to nationality. J Contemp Eur Stud 26(1):28–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdam J (2010) “Disappearing states,” statelessness and the boundaries of international law. Available via Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1539766. Accessed at 30 July 2019

  • Miller D (2016) Strangers in our midst: the political philosophy of immigration. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nyers P (2006) The accidental citizen: acts of sovereignty and (un)making citizenship. Econ Soc 25(1):22–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ong A (1999) Flexible citizenship: the cultural logics of transnationality. Duke University Press, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  • Pogge T (2008) An egalitarian law of peoples. In: Pogge T, Moellendorf D (eds) Global justice: seminal essays. Paragon House, St. Paul, pp 462–493

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassen S (2003) The repositioning of citizenship: emergent subjects and spaces for politics. CR 3(2):41–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer C, Blitz BK (eds) (2011) Statelessness in the European Union: displaced, undocumented, unwanted. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Shachar A (2009) The birthright lottery: citizenship and global inequality. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Somers MR (2008) Genealogies of citizenship: markets, statelessness, and the right to have rights. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Soysal YN (1998) Toward a postnational model of membership. In: Shafir G (ed) The citizenship debates. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Staples K (2012) Retheorising statelessness: a background theory of membership in world politics. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Swider K (2017) Why end statelessness? In: Bloom T, Tonkiss K, Cole P (eds) Understanding statelessness: lives in limbo. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1954) Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=3ae6b3840. Accessed 20 May 2019

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1961) Convention on the reduction of statelessness. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=3ae6b39620. Accessed 20 May 2019

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2010) Expert meeting – the concept of stateless persons under international law (summary conclusions). Available via UNHCR website. https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/protection/statelessness/4cb2fe326/expert-meeting-concept-stateless-persons-under-international-law-summary.html. Accessed 31 July 2019

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2014) Global Action Plan to End Statelessness. Available via UNHCR website. https://www.unhcr.org/protection/statelessness/54621bf49/global-action-plan-end-statelessness-2014-2024.html. Accessed 20 May 2019

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2019) The UNHCR 2001 Global Appeal. Available via UNHCR website. https://www.unhcr.org/3e2c05c30.pdf. Accessed 31 July 2019

  • United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (2021a) Convention relating to the status of stateless person 1954. Available via United Nations Treaty Collection. https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsII.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-3&chapter=5&Temp=mtdsg2&clang=_en#top

  • United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (2021b) Convention on the reduction of statelessness: New York, 30 August 1961. Available via United Nations Trearty Collection. https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-4&chapter=5

  • Walzer M (1983) Spheres of justice: a defense of pluralism and equality. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ypi L (2018) Borders of class: migration and citizenship in the capitalist state. Ethics Int Aff 32(2):141–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Publisher’s note:

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Asma Atique

Authors
  1. Asma Atique
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Asma Atique .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Studies, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Michael Kocsis

Section Editor information

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Kevin W. Gray

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Atique, A. (2020). Stateless Persons and the UN High Commission for Refugees. In: Kocsis, M. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_51-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_51-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68846-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68846-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation