Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals Executive summary A central objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to “leave no one behind”. This report demonstrates that stateless persons are among those most likely to be left behind in any development process. The achievement of the SDGs thus requires attention to the problem of statelessness and the realisation of the right to a nationality for all. Stateless persons –persons not considered as a national by any State – are among the most marginalized and impoverished members of any society. They face challenges in accessing basic services such as health, education, or social protection. Practical obstacles in their daily life include difficulties opening a bank account, getting a SIM card, or being unable to marry officially. They find themselves unable to fully contribute to society, including the social and economic development of the country in which they live. Most stateless people live in their “own country”: there is no other State to which they might move and in which they might gain recognition of nationality. The right to a nationality is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and many of the human rights treaties, yet millions of people find themselves stateless, or lack official recognition of the nationality to which they are entitled. The realisation of the right to a nationality and the eradication of statelessness is typically presented and analysed as a legal or human rights issue rather than a question of development policy. An end to statelessness may indeed require legal and policy reforms; but the fulfilment of the right to a nationality for all is also key to socioeconomic development and the eradication of poverty, as social and economic exclusion of stateless people has impacts not only on the stateless themselves, but also on their families and communities and the State itself. Exclusion from public health provision creates risks for surrounding communities; exclusion from education deprives a State of access to a potential pool of trained talent and potential contributions in terms of tax revenues and skills. In extreme cases, multigenerational exclusion of stateless persons creates threats to the stability of society itself and to international peace and security. Statelessness directly impacts global efforts to achieve many of the individual Sustainable Development Goals, including the goals to end poverty (SDG 1) and to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth (SDG 8). The SDGs relating to health (SDG 3) and education (SDG 4) are also at stake. Gender discrimination in nationality laws, still present in 24 countries, also affects SDGs relating to the promotion of gender equality (SDG 5) and reducing inequality in other dimensions (SDG 10). SDG target 16.9, to “provide legal identity for all, including birth registration” is included for good reason under SDG 16, on peace, justice and strong institutions, and is of particular relevance to efforts to end statelessness. Lack of birth registration is both a cause and consequence of statelessness: it can prevent the establishment of the necessary legal link to a parent who in fact has a recognized nationality, or to the country in which the child was born; impoverished people are also more likely to lack legally accepted proof of the facts necessary for nationality to be recognized or acquired. Therefore, the eradication of statelessness must be identified as a specific development objective. Existing development initiatives can directly contribute to efforts to identify and protect stateless persons, who otherwise may be denied access to services. However, it is not sufficient for development initiatives to focus only on the inclusion of stateless persons within existing programming. Nor is it sufficient to focus only on universal birth registration—important as this is—or the registration of an identity within a national population register. Development initiatives should seek to address the root causes of statelessness, including removal of discriminatory legal provisions and administrative reforms, support for due process and access to remedies for arbitrary exclusion, and outreach to resolve the status of those whose nationality is in doubt. An end to the exclusion of stateless persons ultimately requires an end to statelessness itself. 9