4, ADDRESSING STATELESSNESS THROUGH THE RIGHTS TO EQUALITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION discrimination and statelessness is less clear. Rules which appear to apply equally, such as procedures for school enrolment may, on closer examination, disadvantage stateless children and so amount to indirect discrimination. As a result, stateless people’s ability to participate in all aspects of life on an equal basis with others and to fully enjoy their human rights is often severely impeded. They are typically excluded from civic life and rarely have full access to key rights such as work, education and healthcare. Whether obvious at first glance or not, discrimination is present in nearly every stateless person’s story. One can neither tell the story of statelessness, nor seek to finish it for good, without addressing the inequality and discrimination faced by its protagonists. This chapter begins by exploring the relationship between inequality and statelessness. It argues that statelessness cannot be eradicated unless discriminatory societal attitudes which view some people as less worthy of inclusion than others are comprehensively tackled. While such attitudes will not change overnight, there are some measures that can be used to put changes in motion now. This chapter posits that an improved use of the legal framework on equality to address statelessness is both possible and important.‘ This framework is both powerful - enshrined as it is in international human rights law — vital and, to-date, under-used. This chapter provides an overview of the legal framework on equality before reviewing some practical ways in which the framework can be used both to tackle the existence of statelessness and to mitigate its impacts. 2. The relationship between inequality and statelessness No society is equal. In all societies the privileged disproportionately enjoy social goods and opportunities while other groups battle against socio-economic and political disadvantage. The equality activist’s role is to struggle for the utopian world reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which recognises “the inherent dignity and |[...] the equal and inalienable rights of all members of * The legal framework on equality has multiple sources and continues to develop. For a best practice interpretation of its content see, Equal Rights Trust, Declaration of Principles on Equality, 2008. For further insight into its content and legal sources see also B. Hepple, Equality: The New Legal Framework, Hart Publishing 2014; S. Fredman, Discrimination Law, Oxford University Press, 2011; T. Khaitan, A Theory of Discrimination Law, Oxford University Press 2015. 100