Editorial discrimination in domestic legislation, rendering Kurds and Palestinians stateless’. 11 The article is not just relevant to those interested in Syria; she seeks to question and challenge ‘mainstream narratives’ that she argues ‘presuppose that statelessness is the result of current discriminatory practices adopted by modern states, largely neglecting the impact of colonialism’. 12 In particular, she posits that ‘international law on statelessness and citizenship utterly overlooks the importance of (de)colonial legacies’, 13 challenging those who address statelessness from a legal perspective also to critically reflect on the limitations and blind spots of existing instruments. This contribution thus sets the agenda for a more critical approach to statelessness studies by paying attention to the role and contribution of postcolonial approaches to scholarship. This methodological innovation is also displayed in other contributions, including in the forthcoming symposium on ‘Citizenship and Statelessness in India’, which further develop new approaches to the field. For example, Padmini Baruah and Trisha Sabhapandit’s piece entitled, ‘Untrustworthy and Unbelievable: Women and the Quest for Citizenship in Assam’, applies a feminist lens to Assam, offering an original insight into this troubling context. Drawing on Deirdre Brennan’s argument that a feminist methodology in statelessness studies ‘is yet to emerge’, 14 the authors take up the challenge of undertaking a feminist analysis of developments in Assam, a situation that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues has described as the ‘biggest exercise in statelessness since the second world war’. 15 As the authors observe, while there is important scholarship on this issue, 16 ‘there is little scholarly work on the impact this issue has on the lives of women’. 17 This article therefore ‘contributes to the burgeoning scholarly research that is emerging on the gendered impact of statelessness’, by centring ‘the experiences of women as they navigate the precarious liminal zone between citizenship and statelessness’. 18 The contributions to the general articles section of this issue offer much-needed knowledge and insight into core issues in the protection of stateless persons, namely, the right to nationality and the nature and content of statelessness determination procedures (‘SDP’). In Darren Ekema Ewumbue Monono’s article on ‘Peoples’ Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa’, he critiques the current efforts of both international and African institutions to promote the right to nationality, with a view to eradicating statelessness in the continent, concluding that such efforts ‘have, however, focused on the right to 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Malak Benslama-Dabdoub, ‘Colonial Legacies in Syrian Nationality Law and the Risk of Statelessness’ (2021) 3(1) Statelessness & Citizenship Review 6. ibid 32–33. ibid 11. Deirdre Brennan, ‘Feminist Foresight in Statelessness’ (2020) 2(1) The Statelessness & Citizenship Review 43. Hannah Gordon and Elif Sekercioglu, ‘Citizenship Denied: Two Million in India Face an Uncertain Future’, Right Now (online, 13 June 2020) <https://rightnow.org.au/analysis/citizenship-denied/>. See for example Talha Rahman’s excellent contribution in Volume 2(1): Talha Abdul Rahman, ‘Identifying the Outsider: An Assessment of Foreigner Tribunals in the Indian State of Assam’ (2020) 2(1) Statelessness & Citizenship Review 112; Trisha Sabhapandit and Padmini Baruah, ‘“Untrustworthy and Unbelievable”: Women and the Quest for Citizenship in Assam’ (2021) 3(1) Statelessness & Citizenship Review (forthcoming). Baruah and Sabhapandit (n 16) (forthcoming). ibid. 3