Recalde-Vela 185 nations’,21 making it an indispensable legal concept. This membership gives rise to a reciprocal relationship of mutual rights and duties between the individual and the state. On the state’s part, this includes its duty to protect its nationals from violations perpetrated by other states. When its nationals have been harmed by other states, it is the state’s right to exercise22 diplomatic protection on their behalf for losses or harms.23 By definition, a stateless person is an individual who is ‘not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law’.24 Statelessness is a legal concept, as it denotes a (lack of) legal status, and is often characterized as a violation of the right to nationality.25 However, statelessness is not only a violation of the right to nationality, but is also a (potentially corrosive) “human condition”26 which frequently makes individuals vulnerable to further human rights violations. Life without a nationality can have “destabilizing effects”,27 including the inability to enjoy a socio-political life,28 the inability to find decent employment,29 lack of access to healthcare and education, limitations on freedom of movement, lack of state protection, lack of access to official documentation, to name a few.30 The challenges mentioned above can create a situation of vulnerability for many stateless persons.31 Therefore, statelessness is a violation of an international right— the right to nationality—but also opens the way to the violation of other rights. In addition, some stateless persons, like the Rohingya, suffer from additional violations of their rights at the hands of state authorities, not as a direct result of their lack of nationality. It should be stressed that even though stateless persons worldwide share a common trait—their lack of nationality—their experiences are different depending on the context they live in,32 including their experiences of harm, and the degree to which they feel “victimized” by said harm.33 According to Letschert & van der Velde, statelessness can victimize individuals in various ways34 and to different degrees. Victimization35 is defined as a process36 where an external force comes in contact with a person, resulting in physical, psy21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 RD Sloane, ‘Breaking the Genuine Link: The Contemporary International Legal Regulation of Nationality’ (2009) 50(1) Harvard International Law Journal 1. The ICJ has determined that diplomatic protection can only arise when there is a genuine link between state and individual in its landmark Nottebohm Case. ‘Liechtenstein brought a claim on his behalf (Nottebohm) against Guatemala before the International Court of Justice but failed. The Court held that the right of protection arises only when there is a genuine link between the claimant state and its national, and that there was no genuine link between Nottebohm and Liechtenstein’. In P Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law (7th, Routledge, New York 1997), at 243. K Parlett, The Individual in the International Legal System: Continuity and Change in International Law (1st, Cambridge University Press, 2011), at 29; C Whelton, ‘The United Nations Compensation Commission and International Claims Law: A Fresh Approach’ (1993) 25 Ottawa Law Review 607. Article 1 UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 28 September 1954, UNTS vol. 360. For an overview of international treaties which contain a provision on nationality, particularly as a right, see Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘International Statelessness Law: A Pocket Edition’ (Wolf Legal Publishers, 2014) available at http://www. wolfpublishers.com/book.php?id=1077. M Manly & LE van Waas, ‘The State of Statelessness Research’ (2014) 19 Tilburg Law Review 3. C Batchelor, ‘The International Legal Framework Concerning Statelessness and Access for Stateless Persons’ (2002) Contribution to the European Union Seminar on the Content and Scope of International Protection. R Letschert & Z van der Velde, ‘Collective victimization of stateless peoples, the added value of the victim label’ (2014) 19 Tilburg Law Review 285. P Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law (7th, Routledge, New York 1997), at 264. Many of these rights are codified under international and regional human rights instruments, such as the ICCPR, ICESCR, ACHR, ECHR, ACHPR, to name a few. For instance, many stateless persons fear being known to the authorities, as they are frequently arrested and put in arbitrary detention, awaiting deportation. Since there is no state where they can be deported to, they often remain in detention for a long time, or are in and out of detention, which creates a systemic situation of vulnerability and for many, fear. This leads many stateless to distrust the authorities and attempt to remain ‘hidden’. See European Network on Statelessness, ‘Protecting stateless persons from arbitrary detention: an agenda for change’ (report) (2017) available at <https://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/ files/attachments/resources/ENS_LockeInLimbo_Detention_Agenda_online.pdf> accessed 16th March 2019. Katja Swider, ‘Why End Statelessness?’ in Tendayi Bloom, Katherine Tonkiss and Phillip Cole (eds), Understanding Statelessness (Routledge Studies in Human Rights 2017). It should also be stressed that this article does not intend in any way to speak for stateless persons. It merely explores the challenges they have faced or might face when seeking redress as a result of their situation as stateless persons, and how these ­challenges have been or could be overcome. Including physical, emotional, psychological forms of harm. See R Letschert & Z van der Velde, ‘Collective victimization of stateless peoples, the added value of the victim label’ (2014) 19 Tilburg Law Review 285. The risk or likelihood of victimization can be measured by various factors, including vulnerability, which refers to an individual’s ability or inability to resist victimization and ‘susceptibility’, which refers to how frequently one is victimized. See R Elias, The ­Politics of Victimization: Victims, Victimology and Human Rights (Oxford University Press USA, 1986). The word ‘process’ is key: victimization should be understood as a process, not as an isolated event see SN Verdun-Jones & KR ­Rossiter, ‘The psychological impact of victimization: mental health outcomes and psychological, legal and restorative interventions’ in S Shoham, P Knepper & M Kett (eds), International Handbook of Victimology (CRC Press, 2010).