Luxembourg and Tajikistan. The World’s Stateless also refers to
numerous declarations on the problem of statelessness including
the Abidjan Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness
covering West Africa, the Declaration of the International
Conference of the Great Lakes Region on the Eradication of
Statelessness, the N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of
Statelessness covering Central Africa, the Arab Declaration on
Legal Identity and Belonging covering members of the League of
Arab States, and the Brazil Declaration which devotes a chapter
to ending statelessness in the Americas.
The present report must be commended in this backdrop for its
effort to raise awareness about the grave problems encountered
by precarious citizens and stateless persons. It is an important
and timely effort to flag relevant legal issues as law and legal
institutions are an important site of struggle for democratic
rights. Even as concern grows that judicial institutions are not as
alert to the violation of democratic rights as in the past, the resort
to them is still a significant remedy in the hands of those
threatened with or deprived of the right to nationality. Not
everyone may agree with every bit of the analysis offered on a
wide range of legal issues and questions. But it bears reiteration
that what the report does effectively is to consider all pertinent
policy and legal aspects concerning the status of precarious
citizens and stateless persons, including issues relating to
detention. To that end, this report renders a signal service making
cogent recommendations. I earnestly hope this report will be
read, disseminated and debated.
B.S. Chimni
Distinguished Professor of International Law
O.P. Jindal Global University
Sonipat, Haryana, India
November 2020
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