90 COLUM. J. RACE & L. [Vol. 11:83 described by German political theorist Hannah Arendt as “the right to have rights.”19 As numerous scholars have noted, while statelessness 20 itself is a serious human rights violation, the condition of statelessness can also leave people vulnerable to other profound human rights violations.21 Notwithstanding this and despite a renewed focus on statelessness as a pressing and pervasive global human rights issue, 22 the international community continues to struggle to articulate statelessness as a problem significantly animated by racial and ethnic discrimination. 23 In its 2017 #IBELONG Campaign report, which focused on discrimination against minority groups, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pointed out that discrimination lies at the heart of most cases of statelessness; it is both a cause and consequence of statelessness.24 As another scholar writes, “most stateless populations lack legal nationality because they are part of a marginalised group that faces systematic discrimination and oppression from the start.”25 Yet, racial discrimination has not 19 HANNAH ARENDT, THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM 296 (1968). 20 See Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons art. 1, Sept. 28, 1954, 360 U.N.T.S. 117 [hereinafter 1954 Statelessness Convention] (defining the term “stateless person” as a person “who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”). 21 See INST. FOR S TATELESSNESS & INCLUSION, THE WORLD’S STATELESS 29 (2014) (arguing that statelessness is a gateway to further human rights abuses). See also LINDSEY N. KINGSTON, FULLY HUMAN: PERSONHOOD, CITIZENSHIP, AND RIGHTS (2019) [hereinafter KINGSTON, FULLY HUMAN] (arguing that statelessness is an example of how basic human rights are threatened whenever a person’s relationship to the state is weakened or destroyed). 22 See generally Michelle Foster & Hélène Lambert, Statelessness as a Human Rights Issue: A Concept Whose Time Has Come, 28 INT’L J. REFUGEE L. 564 (2016) (analyzing the developments in international campaigns to address statelessness). 23 Other relevant causes of statelessness include gender discrimination, state succession, gaps in nationality laws, conflicting nationality laws, migration, and administrative barriers to birth registration. See Michelle Foster et al., Part One: The Protection of Stateless Persons in Australian Law—The Rationale for a Statelessness Determination Procedure, 40 MELBOURNE L. REV. 401, 408–09 (2017). 24 de Chickera & Whiteman, supra note 1, at 103. 25 See Lindsey N. Kingston, Worthy of Rights: Statelessness as a Cause and Symptom of Marginalisation, in UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS 17 (Tendayi Bloom et al. eds., 2017) [hereinafter Kingston, Worthy of Rights]. See also Lindsey N. Kingston & Saheli Datta, Strengthening the Norms of Global Responsibility: Structural Violence in Relation to Internal Displacement and Statelessness, 4 GLOB. RESP. TO PROTECT 475 (2012) (emphasizing the political vulnerability of stateless people).