Foreword
In recent years, the particular challenges concerning the right
to nationality for minorities have gained increasing recognition.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), as of 2017, more than 75 per cent of the
world’s estimated stateless population of over 10 million people
belong to national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities.
This proportion seems likely to increase significantly, as minorities
in the region are targeted by processes and legislation that may
result in millions more being excluded because they are unable
to prove to the satisfaction of authorities their long-standing
presence in a country. Beyond this most extreme manifestation of
minorities’ exclusion from national communities which may be in
breach of the fundamental right to equality without discrimination,
are numerous other ways in which minorities belonging to a
community of citizens are denied or diminished in a way that
affect their enjoyment of a range of human rights. As the current
report reveals, South Asia—the most populous region in the world,
with vast numbers of diverse minority populations—is no stranger
to such issues, with recent and longstanding laws, practices and
policies, resulting in the exclusion of national or ethnic, religious,
and linguistic minorities, Dalits and indigenous peoples.
In November 2018, hundreds of minority activists from
around the world, including countries from across South Asia,
congregated in Geneva for the eleventh session of the Forum on
Minority Issues to explore the theme ‘Statelessness: A Minority
Issue’. Drawing on personal experiences, minorities in attendance
shared interventions addressing themes related to the root causes
of statelessness; the relationship between statelessness and
conflict; access to documentation; and the gendered dimensions
of statelessness for minorities. The outcomes of this gathering
were both insightful and sobering. Critically, the discussions made
apparent the scale and dynamics of statelessness as a minority