286 1 van der Velde and Letschert Introduction Studies on stateless peoples remain curiously absent in the present body of victimological literature,1 ‘curiously’ because the vulnerabilities that define the existence of those subjected to statelessness are elaborately dealt with in other academic disciplines. Perhaps most famously, Hannah Arendt has shed light on the causes and forms of victimisation that come with a lack of citizenship. Asserting that the stateless have no ‘right to have rights’, she showed that not having a nationality means that an individual falls beyond the protection and entitlements that are normally safeguarded by the bond between a state and its citizens. The stateless thus reside within the territorial borders of a state as outlaws without formal socio-political existence and entitlements.2 The constant threat of detention and deportation, difficulties in obtaining secure employment, accessing health care, attending institutions of higher education, and impairments to freedom of movement are the result of the legal nonexistence of a person without citizenship.3 Furthermore, being stateless, ‘belonging nowhere’ complicates a person’s self-perception and in combination with a hostile state climate may cause severe psychological stress. Following the UNHCR, currently an estimated 12 million people worldwide are stateless, making statelessness one of the most urgent challenges for the international community today.4 The causes of statelessness, as well as the reality of being stateless, differ from context to context. Statelessness may be voluntary when a person gives up his nationality proprio motu, but statelessness may also occur ‘accidentally’ when a loophole in a state’s domestic law renders a person stateless.5 Of interest in the light of the present contribution, however, are those instances where people and communities have lost their citizenship as a consequence of 1 The UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines that a ‘(…) “stateless person means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law’. Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (adopted 28 September 1954, entered into force 6 June 1960) 189 UNTS 117, art 1. 2 See M.J. Gibney ‘Statelessness and the Right to Citizenship’ (2009) 32 Forced Migration Review 50, 50-51 (referring to Hannah Arendt). 3 While human rights are generally to be enjoyed by everyone, selected rights such as the right to vote may be limited to nationals. See further L. van Waas, Nationality Matters. Statelessness under International Law (Intersentia 2008). 4 Note: no accurate statistics are available on the precise number of Stateless people. In: UNHCR (2013). Stateless People Figures. Last accessed: October 22nd, 2013. 5 In Lebanon for instance, women lose their nationality if they marry foreign man. In case their husband is stateless, the children will inherit no nationality and become stateless too. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 285-293