tilburg law review 19 (2014) 11-19 brill.com/tilr No Legal Bond, No Family Life Zahra Albarazi Researcher at Statelessness Programme, Tilburg University Z.Albarazi@uvt.nl Abstract With increased efforts to address the problem of statelessness globally, there is still a fundamental deficiency in information regarding the substantial violations of right caused by statelessness and its consequences. What this article wishes to do is to shed light on one consequence of statelessness that is yet to be part of either national or international discourse or addressed in research or reports on the issue. This overlooked problem is the negative and alarming effects of statelessness on the enjoyment of family unity and ultimately on the preservation of family structure. This article wishes to discuss the impact of statelessness on family unity by analysing three significant violations of rights that occur due to this status, focusing on the right to marriage, family unification and the right to own property - and how they often cause rifts in starting developing or keeping family unity. Keywords statelessness – family unity – family unification * The author’s area of research and expertise has focused on the understanding of statelessness and nationality in the MENA region. She coordinated the 2011-2012 MENA Nationality project and was the principal researcher for a project looking at the link between statelessness and gender discrimination in the region. She holds an LLM in International Law from the University of Leeds. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/22112596-01902002