According to estimates, several million people worldwide2 are not nationals of any state, meaning they are ‘stateless’. Stateless persons are persons not considered as nationals by any country.3 Statelessness can be a consequence of a number of circumstances: gaps in nationality laws, discriminatory regulations and practices, administrative issues, absence of birth registration, deprivation of nationality (where a state revokes an individual’s citizenship), and renunciation of nationality (where an individual chooses to waive their citizenship).4 Most stateless persons have never even crossed a border, and have always lived in a country they consider their own. For those individuals, statelessness is often a consequence of problems caused by administrative mechanisms that operate in accordance with their countries’ nationality laws.5 Those laws and the administrative practices that accompany them are so designed that they often contribute to the occurrence and spread of statelessness. Although it may be the product of a wide variety of reasons, it ought to be noted that statelessness has many adverse consequences. Stateless individuals can be denied many rights that nationals can enjoy, such as access to employment, housing, education, and healthcare. These persons are often deprived of the right to own property, have a bank account, marry, or register the birth of a child. Some stateless persons also risk detention as they are unable to prove their identity or legally regulate residence in the country in which they live. The right to nationality is a basic human right that is enjoyed by all, stateless persons included. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights6 states: (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.’ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has contributed to a broader awareness of the right to nationality as a human right, but it was only the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons,7 that 2 The document Global Trends - Forced Displacement in 2018 states the number of 3.9 million people who can be considered stateless, with the estimate that the actual number is significantly higher. During 2018, UNHCR was able to report on people in those countries that are under the UNHCR mandate to address statelessness (78 countries), from other countries UNHCR did not collect reliable data, despite allegations of the existence of persons who are stateless. (https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2018/) 3 ‘[A] person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law’ according to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 4 The UNHCR believes the key reasons for statelessness are: gaps in laws, emergence of new states, laws regulating birth and marriage registration, discrimination, deprivation of nationality, renunciation of nationality, and loss of nationality by the operation of law. 5 UNHCR Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014. Available at unhcr.org/dach/wp-content/ uploads/sites/27/2017/04/CH-UNHCR_Handbook-on-Protection-of-Stateless-Persons.pdf. 6 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 7 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA OVERVIEW OF CURRENT SITUATION AND THE WAY FORWARD 9