Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals 1.1 The Sustainable Development Goals' commitment to "leave no one behind" requires the eradication of statelessness Stateless persons are often among the most marginalized and impoverished members of any society. The legal definition of a stateless person – “A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law” – may appear dry and technical. In practice, it has far reaching personal, legal, societal and economic consequences. The fact that a person is not recognized as a national is often the cause of exclusion from a wide range of rights that the international human rights regime considers in principle to be universal – ranging from freedom from arbitrary detention to the right to vote and to access to education and health care – as well as exclusion from the benefits of, and opportunities to contribute to, the social and economic development of the country in which they live. In recognition of this foundational status, the right to a nationality is recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is established as a legal obligation of states by the international human rights treaties and the two statelessness conventions. The obligation to end statelessness is also established by international and regional human rights treaties and has been affirmed in pledges made by States at high-level UNHCR events, in accepted recommendations from the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks agreed with governments and in national action plans on statelessness. While some stateless people were born in another country and now live in a place with which they do not have deep-rooted connections, the vast majority of stateless people are living in their country of birth and lifelong residence, often with parents and grandparents also born in that territory. Because crossing international borders is more difficult for stateless persons (even those who have identity documents), they may even be more likely to be living in their country of birth than other residents of that territory. Statelessness is very often an inherited condition caused by discrimination in law or practice, on the grounds of sex, race, religion, ethnicity or similar characteristics: many stateless people are members of minorities that face general discrimination in a particular society. Some of those treated as stateless are in fact nationals of the country concerned but lack the ability to prove it. Others would have the right to be recognized as nationals if international minimum standards were respected in national law and applied in practice. A central objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to “leave no one behind” by ensuring that everyone, everywhere can enjoy the rights, services and wellbeing set out in these goals. The stateless are among those most likely to be left behind in any development process. Achievement of the SDGs therefore requires attention to the problem of statelessness. Although the international human rights regime establishes a baseline of rights that should be accessible to all, there are usually many rights beyond this bare minimum that are established only for nationals of the country concerned. Where discrimination prevents access to nationality and the enjoyment of related rights, stateless people will inevitably be left behind. It is insufficient to assert a general obligation of non-discrimination or to provide proof of identity to all. The 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. 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. 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. It is not sufficient for development initiatives to focus 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 identity within a national population register. Ending the exclusion of stateless persons means ending statelessness itself; in other words, ensuring that those who currently have no recognized nationality have access to processes for determining their nationality or statelessness, recognizing their existing nationality or the possibility of acquiring one and issuing identity documents confirming this status. 12