Journal of Public Representative and Society Provision
Vol. 6, Issue 1, 2026
Page 182-197
Doi: https://doi.org/10.55885/jprsp.v6i1.767
The Role of the International Community and the
Responsibility of States to the Existence of Stateless
Nations from a Human Rights Perspective
Rajab Ahirullah1
1Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia
Email: rajabahirullah25@gmail.com
Abstract. UNHCR estimates that 10 million people live without citizenship throughout the
world. This condition of statelessness arises from various factors, which nowadays are mostly
caused by state succession and prolonged conflicts between countries. The Kurds, Assamese,
Palestinians and Ukrainians are some of the cases of statelessness that have received
international attention. Therefore, this research was conducted to explore and analyze the
development of international human rights law and the role of nation states in overcoming the
phenomenon of nations without states. This research is normative juridical research based on
secondary data obtained from authoritative and textual materials. The research results show
that the escalation of stateless nations is increasing and living in various forms of human rights
violations. Various international documents have guaranteed protection for stateless people.
However, only a few countries have ratified and adopted international agreements, while their
implementation only reaches the level of international commitment. In fact, systematic neglect
and discrimination still occurs. There is different treatment between adopting countries and
countries that do not adopt international conventions in viewing stateless people. Indonesia,
Japan and the Middle East apply various criteria that serve to hinder the acceptance of stateless
persons. Meanwhile, the Philippines is building a system that allows the fulfillment and
protection of the rights of stateless people. Therefore, there needs to be international
collaboration in building global, regional and domestic systems and networks that enable the
facilitation of stateless people at a better level regardless of national origin, religion, race and
other identities.
Keywords: Human Rights; International; Stateless Nation; State Responsibility
Received: September 11, 2025
Revised: December 22, 2025
Accepted: January 29, 2026
INTRODUCTION
The high incidence of statelessness enjoys a tremendous impact on the implementation of
human rights (Kingston, 2013, 2019; Mehtab et al., 2025; Foster & Lambert, 2016). Principally,
human rights are natural to everyone and that protection is universal regardless of time or space
parameters. These universal rights include the right to obtain citizenship or nationality free of
any discriminations based on origin, race, ethnic origin and religious membership. The General
Declaration of Human rights states that all people have the right to have a nationality and thus a
legal nexus between a state and a person is created (Forlati, 2013; Adjami & Harrington, 2008;
Pentassuglia, 2017; Spiro, 2010).
A citizenship status has the concomitant consequences on how other fundamental rights
are to be enjoyed in due manner, secured and fulfilled by the sovereign entity (Kochenov, 2008;
ISSN 2776-1266 (print), 2776-1266 (online)
Copyright © 2026, Journal of Public Representative and Society Provision
Under the license CC BY-SA 4.0
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