Stateless Indigenous People(s) 101 them extremely vulnerable, not only to abuse as cheap laborers and in relation to crimes like human trafficking, but also in relation to violations of many (other) basic human rights by ‘their own’ Thai authorities. More specifically, those people are denied: the right to vote and to participate in the administration; the right to land ownership; the right to travel beyond their home districts or provinces, which limits their job opportunities; the right to attend school, or if given the chance to attend, the right to obtain a certificate after finishing school; the right to access state welfare services such as medical care12 and treatment.13 The study on the Chakmas in India further mentions: being denied the right to open a bank account; being prohibited from getting married with persons from other communities; and not being able to register births and deaths.’14 The following Part contains additional information on this matter. 3 Nationality and Indigenous People: Two Selected Issues Nationality as the Basis for other Rights: The Importance of Birth Certificates One reason why indigenous people are especially vulnerable to statelessness is the difficulties they face regarding the registration of births. Lack of birth registration, especially when combined with other factors such as migration, discrimination or intergenerational lack of documentation, does cause problems in relation to recognition of nationality and often leads to a situation where – even if the person would be entitled to nationality under the law – the state does not recognize the person as a national because it is not convinced of the facts of birth. Not being recognised as a national by any state is in fact equal to statelessness, while receiving a birth certificate can be seen as a first link in a chain of rights: if missing, the rest is often problematic as well.15 And although 3.1 12 13 14 15 IRIN ‘ASIA: Indigenous groups - Stateless and Sick’ (n 5). Ibid, 39 and Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group ‘The State of being Stateless: A Case Study on Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh, India’ <http://mcrg.ac.in/Statelessness/ Statelessness_Concept.html> accessed 21 October 2013. Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (n 13). UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954, art. 1: ‘For the purpose of this Convention, the term “stateless person” means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.’ For further clarification, see: UNHCR, tilburg law review 19 (2014) 98-107