STATELESS PEOPLE Statelessness Communities Official statistics claim that there are over 10 million stateless people in the world. Activists place the undocumented figure at approximately 15 million people. Statelessness is experienced by individuals and it is also experienced by entire communities. Throughout the ages there have been many ethnic and religious communities that have been targeted and attacked in a way that destroys their very identity and their right to life. Statelessness Issues Being rendered stateless can happen to a person because of birth, because of laws that discriminate against women, because of natural disasters, because of political unrest and wars, because of purposeful measures to destroy entire communities of people and because of personal and political victimization of individuals. Because statelessness can be inherited, there is a high number of Stateless children in the world. Statelessness and Women Discriminatory laws against women is a fundamental cause of statelessness. There are still several countries in the world which do not allow women to pass on their nationality to their own children – resulting in many children being born stateless. Listen to the Co-Director of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion Amal de Chickera talk to Stages Theatre Group about Statelessness – How big is the problem? What is the biggest challenge? Stateless children. Deepthi Gurung of Nepal, a former stateless woman who fought for years to obtain citizenship for her and her daughters speaks about her activism on statelessness. 7