Part I. Introduction and Context considered as undesirable, because it could potentially destabilize the system of states and societies of citizens that has been built: it may create or worsen “international tensions and disorder” and could challenge states’ “ability to control and order their subject populations”.4 Indeed, Dutch parliamentarians, for instance, recognized back in 1953 that “nationality provisions are not only important for the order of our society and our state, but also are important to the order of the society of peoples”.5 From a (formalistic) legal perspective, it would seem that statelessness is entirely preventable and solvable if proper laws were enacted to address it. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports a global number of 4.2 million stateless people, but recognizes that the actual number is much higher, because “UNHCR does not have any information on stateless populations for most of the world’s countries”.6 It is estimated that more than 107 to 158 million people worldwide are stateless today. The statistics that have currently been collected with regard to statelessness grapple with methodological difficulties in mapping the issue, as well as gaps in data. With still millions of people stateless around the globe today, but without a clear picture of the magnitude of the problem, it seems evident that statelessness is not as easily prevented or solved as one might think. At the same time, the human (rights) side of the issue highlights the need and importance of ensuring the human rights of stateless people, as well as finding solutions to the issue. Important to fi nding solutions to statelessness is nationality: to be stateless means to be without any nationality. Statelessness and nationality are thus closely related – they are opposites by defi nition and represent two sides of the same coin. Statelessness is therefore a lens to better understand the concept of nationality, or citizenship. Nationality, or citizenship, is a concept with many dimensions, which has different forms and perspectives to it.9 These are often interconnected with what nationality means to people and to the state. It is therefore likely that statelessness cannot be solved using only legal norms. As such, this study tries to provide a comprehensive picture of nationality and preventing and solving statelessness, also 4 5 6 7 8 9 4 Matthew J Gibney, ‘Statelessness and Citizenship in Ethical and Political Perspective’ in Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014) 44–63, 49–52. Translated from: “nationaliteitsvoorzieningen niet alleen van betekenis zijn voor het bestel van onze maatschappij en van onze staat, maar ook betekenis hebben voor de orde van de samenleving der volkeren” (transl CV). Th is statement was made in the context of a discussion on provisions to address statelessness in Dutch Parliament, Handelingen II 1952/53, 17 April 1953, 2251. UNHCR, ‘Global Trends. Forced Displacement in 2020’ (UNHCR 2021) 50 <https://www.unhcr. org/60b638e37/unhcr-global-trends-2020> accessed 22 August 2021. Eg UNHCR, ‘UNHCR Statistical Reporting on Statelessness’ (UNHCR Statistics Technical Series 2019/1) <https://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/5d9e182e7/unhcr-statistical-reportingstatelessness.html> accessed 22 August 2021. Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), The World’s Stateless (Wolf Legal Publishers 2014) <https://www.institutesi.org/worldsstateless.pdf> accessed 22 August 2021. Cf Ayelet Shachar, Rainer Bauböck, Irene Bloemraad & Maarten Vink (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship (Oxford University Press 2017). Intersentia