INTRODUCTION  The Expert Group on Refugee, Internally Displaced Persons and Statelessness Statistics state that “‘Persons of Undetermined Nationality’ are people who lack proof of citizenship but who may possess an entitlement to nationality, and if so, could be assisted to obtain proof of citizenship by the relevant authorities. Those in the Undetermined Nationality category must lack proof of citizenship and have links to more than one country, that are real or perceived to be real by authorities, because of their place of birth, marriage, habitual residence, or descent from earlier generations who have migrated.”34 Broadly, undetermined nationality is utilized in this report as a term covering groups possessing a nationality status classified as “unknown” or the like, as well as groups that lack proof of citizenship but may have the entitlement to nationality under the law. While there are a number of similarities between this definition and that of “persons at risk of statelessness” a key distinguishing factor is the relevant community’s possession of perceived links to another state (including historic links). Stateless Refugees: Article 1 of the 1951 Stateless Convention states that “any person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion… who not having a nationality and being outside of the country of his former habitual residence… is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” Who is also “not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law”.35 18 INTRODUCTION Other Populations of Note: this categorisation is utilized for groups that have formally been stateless, or of undetermined nationality whose citizenship status has been resolved yet still experience the impacts of their former status. foundlings and children born to stateless parents. Without such provisions, children who are denied the right to nationality at birth do not have legal pathways to be granted citizenship in the future and are vulnerable to the possibility of intergenerational statelessness. Causes of statelessness Citizenship stripping The causes of statelessness globally and across the Asia-Pacific vary greatly. Several key causes have previously been identified by ISI and other stakeholders. For this report the following five identified causes were utilized as a means of categorization and differentiation. In some instances, there is a noted overlap between the causes or the presence of multiple causes that can compound or extend individual experiences of statelessness. Where this is the case, categories may be combined, or the impacts of multiple causes noted. Citizenship stripping, or deprivation of nationality, are both used interchangeably to describe situations where the withdrawal of citizenship is initiated by the authorities of the State leading to statelessness.37 It is an extreme measure facilitated variously and cumulatively by legislative measures, administrative means, policy decisions and institutional practices at the national level in multiple countries.38 Citizenship deprivation can occur at time of state succession or independence as well as a punitive measure as a contemporary form of “banishment”. Discriminatory nationality laws Statelessness and climate change Discrimination towards specific gender, ethnic, racial, religious or other identities is a key cause of statelessness.36 Discriminatory nationality laws violate international law protecting the right to nationality without discrimination and can also lead to greater discrimination due to an individual’s stateless status. In the case of gender discriminatory laws for example, it can cause inter-generational statelessness if women cannot confer nationality to their children on the same basis as men. This risk of statelessness from “disappearing states” impacted by climate-induced sea level rise currently remains a hypothetical question, with most experts agreeing that this scenario will not inevitably lead to statelessness. Before any states “disappear”, the impacts of relocation and an increase in displacement on communities and individual’s nationality status will need to be faced.39 It is this climate-induced displacement across borders rather than the “disappearance” of islands that poses the greatest risk of statelessness in the future and that is examined in this report. can result in procedural hurdles in accessing or proving nationality, and in the most extreme cases, statelessness. The relationship between birth registration and statelessness, discussed in the administrative barriers section where relevant, can be complex. Birth registration functions as a prerequisite for proving one’s identity and citizenship — including place of birth and parentage — and a lack of birth registration can lead to statelessness.40 However, one is not to presume that merely because a country has high rates of birth registration would automatically signify low rates of statelessness as birth registration alone does not equate to citizenship in many states. While this report includes a lack of birth registration as a cause of statelessness, each subregional section includes information on the link between birth registration and citizenship acquisition for each country. Stakeholders Lack of legal safeguards against childhood statelessness Safeguards against childhood statelessness include citizenship provisions that provide immediate or easy access to citizenship for STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC (DETAILED VERSION) Administrative barriers Administrative barriers, including improper and non-implementation of laws across regions, During the mapping process, we also identified civil society organizations and individuals that are working on statelessness in the region. These include national, sub-regional and regional organizations. Some of the organizations are led by affected persons while some of them are led by persons with learned experiences of statelessness and work closely with persons with lived experience of statelessness. Some of the individuals are freelance researchers, academics and even stateless activists. For this version of the report, we have not categorized the stakeholders. We have only divided them into organizations and individuals which you can find in the Annex of the report. In the next version of the report, we plan to highlight the work of the affected persons led organizations. REPORT 2024 19