The Plight of the Rightless: Mapping and Understanding Statelessness in Tripoli-V1.3 during the World Wars, could have resulted in the persecution of specific groups, which eventually became stateless, such as the exodus of the Jews from Germany, as well as the Armenians since the First World War. 3. Inadequacy of treaties governing territorial settlements or their defective application: Many treaties permitted cases of statelessness to occur due to gaps and uncertainty around the origin or residence of persons on the concerned territory, such as in the case of Bedouins who used to change residence very often at the Lebanese borders. In addition to these causes that date back to the history of legislation, treaties and wars, other contemporary causes persist until today such as:15 4. Administrative procedures: Some individuals who are entitled to the nationality might miss registration deadlines or might not be able to afford registration fees or secure all the required documents for registration such as birth certificate or registration of parents’ marriage prior to child’s birth. 5. Laws and practices: These include marriage laws that cause the loss of nationality of the wife while not acquiring that of her husband, other laws preventing women from registering their children, or laws that cause the automatic loss of nationality due to loss of connection with the State without expressing the wish to retain nationality. Stateless persons do not enjoy the protection of their country of origin. As such, they face very limited access to basic human rights and are often socially regarded as inferior to other citizens of the country they reside in. Broadly speaking, stateless persons worldwide suffer from the following limitations:16 1. Indeterminate personal status which hinders their ability to marry, divorce, recognise or adopt a child, as well as their eligibility for succession and inheritance. 2. Lack of private rights for property acquisition. 3. Ineligibility for formal employment, trade and enterprise ownership. 4. Limited access to education, healthcare and social security. 5. Restricted right to appear before the courts as plaintiff or defendant. 6. Restricted freedom of movement and inability to travel internationally. Other consequences of statelessness include the constant fear of being arrested or detained permanently for not having identification documents.17 Success Stories Several countries managed to identify, prevent or reduce statelessness through different programs. A few successful examples are listed below:18 15 Frontiers Ruwad, Invisible Citizens: Humiliation and a Life in the Shadows (Beirut: Frontiers Ruwad, 2011), p.12. 16 UN, A study of Statelessness (1949), p.17-26. 17 Frontiers Ruwad, Invisible Citizens (2011), p.89. 18 UNHCR, Ministerial Intergovernmental Event on Refugees and Stateless Persons (2012). 18