Learning objectives
Explain how reduction may be achieved through case•by-case,
individual naturalisation and large-scale reduction
campaigns.
•
Outline possibilities and calls for facilitated naturalisation
of stateless persons under international law.
•
Appreciate how the lack of a nationality may render a
•stateless
person vulnerable under human rights law.
•
Discuss the content and approach, strengths and
weaknesses, of the legal regime for the protection of
stateless persons established under the 1954 Convention
relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
Discuss how a large-scale reduction campaign may
take shape and what basic considerations come into play
in the design, implementation and monitoring of such a
campaign.
Understand how international law complements the 1954
•Convention
•
Identify some of the actors that are involved in tackling
statelessness and discuss some of the ways in which they
are contributing to a response to this issue.
Recognise why human rights law is relevant to the
enjoyment of rights by stateless persons and explain
how universal and regional human rights standards and
mechanisms can be used to promote the enjoyment of
rights by stateless persons.
•
Readings and information sources
Key readings
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
* 1954
http://www.unhcr.org/3bbb25729.pdf
and UNHCR, Nationality and Statelessness. A handbook for parliamentarians, chapter 2 on “Identifying and
* IPU
Protecting Stateless Persons”, Geneva, 2005.
http://www.unhcr.org/436774c62.pdf
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Rights of Non-Citizens, Geneva 2006.
* Office
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/noncitizensen.pdf
Gyulai, Forgotten Without Reason: Protection of Non-Refugee Stateless Persons in Central Europe, chapter VI on
* G.
“Facilitated Access to Citizenship”, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, June 2007.
http://www.unhcr.org/497099902.pdf
van Waas, Nationality Matters. Statelessness under International Law, chapter XII on “Protecting the Special Needs of
* L.
the Stateless” (section 1 on “Naturalisation”), Intersentia, 2008.
Perera, “Sri Lankan success story” in Refugees Magazine, No. 147, Issue 3, 2007.
* S.
http://www.unhcr.org/46d2e8dc2.html
White, “Reducing de facto statelessness in Nepal” in Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, April 2009.
* P.
http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR32/28-29.pdf
Additional readings and information sources
Arendt, "The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man" in The origins of totalitarianism,
* Hannah
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1948.
N. Robinson, Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Its Origin, Significance, Application and
* Interpretation,
Institute of Jewish Affairs, New York, 1958.
Goodwin-Gill, “The rights of refugees and stateless persons” in K.P. Saksena (ed.) Human Rights Perspectives &
* G.
Challenges, Lancers Books, New Delhi, 1994.
Tiburcio, The Human Rights of Aliens under International and Comparative Law, chapter II on “The Historical
* C.
Development of the Treatment of Aliens” and chapter III on “Development of the Treatment of Aliens from Diplomatic
Protection to Human Rights”, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 2001.
A Guide to Teaching on Statelessness
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