“ Sadly, the stateless are used to not being seen, counted or included. They are also used to this somehow being articulated as their shortcoming: they are invisible (as opposed to we are blind), they live on the margins (as opposed to we’ve pushed them to the periphery) and they are illegal (as opposed to our law is unjust). Amal de Chickera, Co-Director of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion in Open Democracy10 The majority of the world’s approximately 15 million stateless persons, as well as the tens of millions whose nationality is under threat, lead a severely marginalised existence. Nationality is a gateway through which people can access rights and services. Without it, the stateless face “widespread denial of human rights and […] limits on access to identity documentation, education, health care, legal employment, property ownership, political participation and freedom of movement”.11 This is the time to hold onto, cherish and insist on the application of the values and principles embedded in the human rights, humanitarian, protection and development frameworks. Where instincts may be to afford more leeway to states in light of the challenges they are dealing with, or to focus on reaching as many people as possible (as opposed to the most vulnerable first) with humanitarian relief, it is important to check these instincts and robustly apply basic principles. The cost of statelessness has risen further as the world responds to the global pandemic, which has exacerbated existing inequalities and heightened existing vulnerabilities. The now widely used medical term ‘pre-existing condition’ can also be applied to statelessness: a pre-existing condition which changes the way a person experiences the pandemic, as a result of long-standing structural discrimination. Deep systemic bias also embeds state policy responses to COVID-19 (or any crisis) to put citizens first. Citizens are first to be targeted for public information messages; first to access healthcare services and PPE; first to benefit from emergency relief or economic support packages, to name just a few examples. As states place their own constituents at the centre, non-citizens are left on the side-lines. The stateless are citizens nowhere and noncitizens everywhere, including their own countries. Statelessness is a notoriously hidden issue and so its impacts are often missed or misunderstood.12 While this already presents a major challenge in ‘normal’ times, the problem is amplified and made urgent in the context of the COVID-19. This report helps to inform a statelessness-sensitive approach to the pandemic by documenting the impact of COVID-19 on stateless persons and the enjoyment of the right to a nationality. Equality, dignity, non-discrimination, liberty, security of the person, free speech, socio-economic rights and identity. Human rights treaties, UN Special Procedures HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION Non-refoulement, protection for refugees, stateless persons, asylum seekers and IDPs. Refugee & Statelessness Conventions, Global Compacts, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement International human rights law is not premised on the nationality of the person but rather on the dignity that is equally inherent to all human beings. UN Human Rights Council, 2015 Justice, equitability and inclusion, ‘leave no one behind’, ‘reach the furthest behind first’. Sustainable Development Goals DEVELOPMENT HUMANITARIAN Humanity, impartiality, do no harm, needs-based response. ICRC Code of Conduct for Disaster Relief, GA Resolution 46/182 A. de Chickera, ‘As the world washes its hands of the stateless, they risk facing COVID-19 alone’ Open Democracy (27 April 2020), available at https://www. opendemocracy.net/en/world-washes-its-hands-stateless-they-risk-facing-covid-19-alone/. 11 UN Secretary-General (UNSG), ‘Guidance Note of the Secretary General: The United Nations and Statelessness’ (November 2018), available at: https://www.refworld. org/docid/5c580e507.html. 12 For instance, stateless people are listed among the hidden populations that are hard-to-reach for the humanitarian sector in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, ‘Leaving no one behind: The international humanitarian sector must do more to respond to the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people’ (World Disasters Report 2018), available at: https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/10/B-WDR-2018-EN-LR.pdf. 10 4