Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals Research into outflows of refugees from the wars in both Syria and Ukraine has emphasized pre-existing statelessness as an additional vulnerability in the humanitarian response to conflict. For example, stateless Kurds previously living in Syria have sometimes been excluded from refugee protection measures precisely because they cannot prove that they were nationals of Syria.123 Stateless people formerly resident in Ukraine have faced similar problems.124 The particular vulnerabilities of stateless refugees must be kept in mind beyond the immediate grant of asylum, especially the importance of access to nationality in due course, whether in the country of asylum or upon return to the former country of residence. Most stateless people, however, are not refugees or internally displaced persons but are living in their country of birth and lifelong residence. Yet even in these less acute situations, “Having a nationality and being recognized a citizen of a country is a key element of human security.”125 In its 2003 report, the UN Commission on Human Security (established in response to the UN Secretary-General’s call for a world free of want and free of fear at the 2000 Millennium Summit) called for respect for the right of every person to a nationality and for more adequate measures not only to end statelessness but also “to ensure effective citizenship, a condition for attaining human security”.126 Stateless persons are vulnerable to violence and often unable to access police protection because they fear approaching the police.127 Roma communities in the Western Balkans lacking documents report frequent ill-treatment by the police themselves.128 Stateless persons with no proof of any kind of their legal status in the country are frequently subject to detention, whether as part of immigration proceedings, as a means of extracting money for their release or simply on an arbitrary basis.129 Stateless persons often lack access to the justice system to challenge such abuses, not least because they are often excluded from public legal aid systems.130 Statelessness can also create tension within families, which can cause or exacerbate domestic violence and can prevent the victims from seeking assistance.131 In marriages or relationships where one spouse is a national and the other is stateless, the stateless spouse may be more vulnerable to violence and abuse, including physical violence and more general abusive control.132 The 2023 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls to the General Assembly considered that genderdiscriminatory nationality laws and statelessness themselves constitute a form of violence, in addition to exposing women to other forms of abuse.133 123. Thomas McGee, “From Syria to Europe: experiences of stateless Kurds and Palestinian refugees from Syria seeking protection in Europe” (Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, European Network on Statelessness and ASKV, January 2019), https://statelessjourneys.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/10/ENS-ISI-From_Syria_to_Europe_Jan-2019.pdf. 124. European Network on Statelessness, “Statelessness and the Ukraine crisis response”, June 2022, www.statelessness.eu/statelessness-ukraine-crisis. See especially “Briefing #3: Protection gaps for stateless refugees from Ukraine”, 23 June 2022. 125. UN Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, 2003, 31, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/503749. 126. UN Commission on Human Security, 33. 127. UNHCR, “Impact of statelessness on access to human rights”, 29; Rijken et al., “The nexus between statelessness and human trafficking in Thailand”, 12–13; Jelka Zorn, “From erased and excluded to active participants in Slovenia”, in Statelessness and the Benefits of Citizenship: A Comparative Study, ed. Brad Blitz and Maureen Lynch (Geneva: Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, 2009). 128. European Network on Statelessness, European Roma Rights Centre, and Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, “Roma Belong”; Julija Sardelić, The Fringes of Citizenship: Romani Minorities in Europe and Civic Marginalisation (Manchester University Press, 2021). 129. Amal de Chickera, Unravelling Anomaly: Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of Stateless Persons (London: Equal Rights Trust, 2010), www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/UNRAVELLING%20ANOMALY%20small%20file.pdf; UNHCR, “Stateless persons in detention: a tool for their identification and enhanced protection” (Geneva: UNHCR, 2017), www.refworld.org/pdfid/598adacd4.pdf. 130. Yayan Sopyan, “Access to justice of citizenship rights for stateless Indonesian migrant workers’ children In Sarawak, Malaysia”, Al-Ihkam: Jurnal Hukum & Pranata Sosial 16, No. 2 (2022): 476–502, https://doi.org/10.19105/al-lhkam.v16i2.5285; European Network on Statelessness, European Roma Rights Centre and Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, “Roma belong”, 13–14. 131. Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, “Ending gender-based violence requires equal citizenship: the impact of gender discrimination in nationality laws on gender-based violence”, 2020, https://www.equalnationalityrights.org/resources/the-impact-of-gender-discrimination-innationality-laws-on-gender-based-violence-2/. See also UNHCR and the Kenya Human Rights Commission: Kenya Dialogue on Gender Equality, Nationality and Statelessness, March 2015, www.refworld.org/docid/54f838564.html; “Displaced and stateless women and girls at heightened risk of gender-based violence in the coronavirus pandemic”, UNHCR, 20 April 2020 https://www.equalnationalityrights.org/resources/the-impact-of-genderdiscrimination-in-nationality-laws-on-gender-based-violence-2/; Pumla Rulashe, “Without documents, women at high risk of gender-based violence” UNHCR, 15 December 2021 www.unhcr.org/africa/news/stories/without-documents-women-high-risk-gender-based-violence. 132. Farquharson, “Statelessness in Central Asia”, p.48-49; UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Discrimination against women on nationality related matters”, para. 53. 133. Reem Alsalem, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences: violence against women and girls, nationality laws and statelessness”, A/78/256 (Geneva: United Nations, 28 July 2023), www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a78256report-special-rapporteur-violence-against-women-and-girls-its. 38