1. Introduction to statelessness in South East Asia Worldwide, interest in statelessness has steadily increased over the past few years. This trend reflects the growing awareness that statelessness can have harmful consequences for the lives of individuals and the fabric of communities. Statelessness can also strain inter-state relations, for instance because it may lead to forced displacement. Moreover, statelessness is a truly global issue, with no region left unaffected, including South East Asia. Thanks to the growing attention the issue is receiving from states, civil society, the international community and affected populations, there has been significant progress, for instance in terms of putting in place safeguards to prevent statelessness or resolving existing situations. Nevertheless, there are an estimated 12 million stateless persons spread across the globe.1 In addition, policies and practices can be identified in many countries that may create new cases of statelessness or allow for perpetuation of statelessness from one generation to another. The heightened interest in statelessness is welcomed, since further effort is evidently needed to comprehensively address the issue. To this end, it is helpful to consider what lessons can be taken from the advances made in different countries. This is the focus of the present paper – to discuss good practices for the identification, prevention and reduction of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons in South East Asia.2 1.1 Terminology and definitions Nationality is the legal bond between a person and a state, also known as citizenship. In some countries and contexts, the terms “nationality” and “citizenship” are used to refer to other characteristics.3 However, when it comes to discussing statelessness, the crux of the matter is whether a person enjoys a nationality in the legal-political sense. In this paper, as in most reports relating to statelessness, the terms nationality and citizenship are used interchangeably and refer to membership of a state. A stateless person is a person who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law. A stateless person then, is someone who does not enjoy the legal bond of nationality with any state. In effect, a stateless person is a non-national in every country in the world. The above definition of statelessness has been codified in the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (article 1). This definition is now also recognised to be customary international law, meaning that it should be applied by all states regardless of whether they are parties to the 1954 Convention. In other words, the identification of a person as “stateless” should always be on the basis of this definition.4 This will facilitate the enjoyment by stateless persons of their rights, as set out under domestic and international law. It will also ensure that situations are comparable and that good practices become visible. 1 UNHCR, 2009 Statistical Report: Trends in displacement, protection and solutions, 2010. The information provided in this paper has been extracted from existing documents, reports and studies (drawing on information as to September 2010). Please note that the verification of information compiled from these sources remains the responsibility of the respective author(s). 3 For example, under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the concept of nationality has a sociological meaning. There it describes the quality of belonging to a “nation” – a group of people defined through their real or perceived ethnic, religious, cultural or linguistic identity. 4 Note that literature dealing with statelessness discusses two separate terms: de jure and de facto statelessness. The former describes a person who meets the international legal definition of a stateless person. The latter refers to persons whose situation is in some way comparable to that of the de jure stateless, for instance because they are unable to establish their nationality. This is an area of ongoing debate. UNHCR is seeking to clarify the use of terminology through the issuance of guidance on the interpretation of the legal definition of a stateless person. The first paper produced to this end is UNHCR, UNHCR and de facto statelessness, Legal and Protection Policy Research Series, April 2010. 2 1