STATELESSNESS This can occur through a bewildering series of sovereign, political, legal, technical or administrative directives or oversights which, according to the 1954 Convention, may result in a person becoming someone “who is not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law.” Pitfalls include transfer of territory between states or the formation of new nations which may alter the citizenship of some people, leaving them stateless. A child may be born in a country that grants citizenship by descent only, but the country of the parents denies citizenship to children born abroad. People may lose citizenship because of a prolonged absence abroad, by renouncing their citizenship with“A FOUNDLING out first acquiring another nationality, by failure to FOUND IN THE perform military or other obligations, by conflicts of TERRITORY OF A law or by arbitrary deprivation of nationality of either CONTRACTING individuals or groups by a government. STATE SHALL, IN Laws may discriminate on grounds of sex, race, THE ABSENCE ethnicity or religion. A woman may be unable to pass OF PROOF TO on her nationality to children; girls in certain cultures THE CONTRARY, who are not legally registered or children born out of BE CONSIDERED wedlock may be denied citizenship. TO HAVE BEEN Daunting administrative hurdles may also result BORN WITHIN THAT TERRITORY in statelessness, including the failure to register OF PARENTS children at birth or costly and onerous bureaucratic POSSESSING THE documentation, excessive fees, unrealistic deadlines NATIONALITY OF and lack of appeal or review procedures. THAT STATE.” In principle, individuals are entitled to most human rights protections regardless of their citizenship status Article 2, the 1961 Convention and the potential problems already highlighted. But in practice, fundamental rights are often denied. In the uncertain world inhabited by non-citizens, the boundaries can sometimes overlap. In certain circumstances, for instance, a stateless person may also be a refugee. If a stateless person is forced to flee their country of habitual residence because of persecution he or she will enjoy the protection of the 1951 Refugee Convention. 4 THE WORLD’S STATELESS PEOPLE • 2011