Introduction For those of us who have passports or identity documents, the key that these documents hold to accessing our basic human rights is a fact that we take for granted. We open bank accounts, enter into contracts (including marriage), register for social security, go to hospital and register the births of our children, later enrolling them in school, all without a thought to our ‘ticket’ to these services: our documentation. Yet for those without the ability to obtain proof of their identity, lack of documentation becomes the source of their social, economic and political exclusion. Introduction 1 A stateless person is one ‘who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its laws.’1 The practical manifestation of statelessness is ordinarily the inability to access documentation; a state that does not recognise a person as a national will also not take responsibility for their documentation. Persons who have been denationalised will often have their documentation forcibly removed. Those stateless persons who are undocumented from birth will most likely never, without legal assistance, know what it is to hold an ID with their name on it. In some cases, people only discover they are stateless during deportation proceedings when no country will issue an emergency travel document to authorise their deportation. In the African context, statelessness is often confused with a lack of belonging. Doubts as to whether statelessness can exist in Africa are thus usually centred around notions of the large African family and cultural assumptions; how can an African be stateless if he, as all Africans, comes from an identifiable town/village and has an extended family or a chief who can vouch for him? However, a stateless person may well have an established family and home life and may well feel a real sense of belonging in their place of origin. Being stateless does not imply that a person has no roots. Also, while many Africans do come from an identifiable place and family, exceptions exist in the context of forced migration that is a reality across Africa. In reality, nationality is not a matter of how much a person feels that he belongs in or comes from any particular place. The crux of the matter is whether he qualifies under the law and is considered a national by the state in question. Documentation is usually the issue that will bring statelessness to your doorstep as an attorney, paralegal or social worker. People 1 Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide 1