‘Untrustworthy and Unbelievable’ It further provides an unqualified right to remain in one’s country. !7 It becomes the gateway to multiple other basic rights vested upon people by a country, such as education, healthcare, employment and welfare.'® When the legal bond tying a person to a state falters, the spectrum of rights they enjoy diminishes significantly. A Citizenship and Sovereignty Citizenship as a concept has been considered, with little challenge, the domain of the nation-state. A person is a citizen, provided they meet certain criteria that the state lays down. Famously, Arendt proclaimed that a citizen ‘... is by definition a citizen among citizens of a country among countries. His rights and duties must be defined and limited, not only by those of his fellow citizens, but also by the boundaries of a territory.’29 It is the state which reserves the right to determine who is allowed entry into this exclusive club.2! Thus, the right to citizenship mandates a reciprocal duty to provide it on the part of a sovereign state. In recent years, a school of argument has arisen which posits that rights ought to be made available regardless of where one is born or lives. Laura van Waas has suggested that the introduction of the international regime of human rights through the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has led to a situation where rights are denationalised; people can now lay claim to rights merely by virtue of belonging to the human race.2? Most human rights norms are applicable to all people, regardless of their nationality or their statelessness.7* The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ((ICCPR’), for instance, creates the duty to guarantee rights to all persons under state jurisdiction, regardless of their nationality or citizenship status.*°? Regardless of this idea increasingly taking root, it cannot be denied that most states view non-citizens as being precluded from exercising rights. For instance, equality before the law and equal protection before the law are fundamental human rights, but discrimination between citizens and non-citizens in the application of these rights is permitted in multiple jurisdictions.*°® 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25. 26 ibid 24. Indira Goris, Julia Harrington and Sebastian Kohn, ‘Statelessness: What It Is and Why It Matters’ 32 Forced Migration Review 4. Statelessness: An Analytical Framework for Prevention, Reduction and Protection (Report, UNHCR 2008) Iv <https://www.unhcr.org/enin/protection/statelessness/49a27 1752/statelessness-analytical-framework-preventionreduction-protection.html>. Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1970) 81. Kristy A Belton, ‘The Neglected Non-Citizen: Statelessness and Liberal Political Theory’ (2011) 7(1) Journal of Global Ethics 59, 61. Matthew J Gibney, ‘Statelessness and the Right to Citizenship’ (2009) 32 Forced Migration Review 50. Laura Van Waas, ‘Nationality and Rights’ in Brad K Blitz and Maureen Lynch (eds), Statelessness and Citizenship: A Comparative Study on the Benefits of Nationality (Edward Elgar Publishing 2011) 23, 24-25. Laura Van Waas, “Addressing the Human Rights Impact of Statelessness in the EU’s External Action’ (European Parliament 2014) 13 <https://www.refworld.org/docid/5513e2934.html>. Brad K Blitz and Maureen Lynch Statelessness and the Benefits of Citizenship: A Comparative Study (Study, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and International Observatory on Statelessness 2009) 13. Van Waas (n 23) 27-28. 239