Breaking the Presumption Americas, the United States 45 and Dominican Republic 46 could be considered to have the largest stateless populations in this region despite the lack of official data. Most stateless persons in these countries are in situ stateless except for those in Bangladesh, which hosts the largest Rohingya population — they are ex situ stateless refugees. Therefore, the majority of stateless people globally are in situ stateless (75% of those reported). Many in situ stateless persons belong to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, and there is an observable correlation between minority groups and the denial or arbitrary deprivation of nationality. 47 This suggests most in situ statelessness is caused by ethnic discrimination against minorities, 48 who are often subject to this arbitrary deprivation of nationality. 49 In this regard, the question is whether SDPs could be applicable to in situ statelessness, or to countries with large in situ stateless populations. For example, Latvia and Côte d'Ivoire have the largest in situ stateless populations in the world and have adopted SDPs. 50 The other question is, could an SDP be applicable to in situ statelessness in a country without a large-scale population of stateless persons? The Inter-American human rights system, UNHCR and the doctrine in this field are coherent in pointing out that SDPs are not applicable to in situ statelessness, but should be applied in the context of ‘persons on the move’ (migrants and 45 46 47 48 49 50 From approximately 218,000 persons ‘potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness’ mapped in the United States, 3.2% have lived in the United States 15–19 years, and 18.2% have lived in the United States for 20 or more years. Those who have lived in the United States for 20 years or more are mostly from Laos and Thailand and persons from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia’. Statelessness in the United States: A Study to Estimate and Profile the US Stateless Population (Report, Center for Migration Studies 2020) 54, 55 <https://cmsny.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/StatelessnessReportFinal.pdf>. UNHCR has not published statistics concerning statelessness in the Dominican Republic in their Global Trends annual report since 2016. The numbers for people of Haitian descent and their offspring are not clear. At least 61,000 of the affected population are registered in the civil registry; more than 8,000 applied to a special naturalisation process; and, as of 2017, approximately 75,000 were registered in the foreigners book without nationality, most of them minors. Paola Pelletier, ‘6 Years Since Law 169-14, Billing with Data’ [‘A 6 años de la Ley 169-14: facturando con datos’], Acento (online, 22 May 2020). <https://acento.com.do/opinion/a-6-anos-de-ley-169-facturando-con-datos-8820205.html>. These numbers are similar to those reported by the Dominican Republic Mission at High Segment level on Statelessness in 2019. General Debate (Cont'd) — 6th Meeting, 70th session of UNHCR Executive Committee (UNHCR 9 October 2019) 2:51:37–2:52:28 <http://webtv.un.org/watch/general-debate-contd-6th-meeting-70th-session-of-unhcrexecutive-committee/6093645658001/?term=>. Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Effective Promotion of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Statelessness: A Minority Issue, UN Doc A/73/205 (20 July 2018) 6 [21]. De Jure Statelessness in the Real World, Applying the Prato Summary Conclusions (Report, Open Society, 2011) 5. Guidelines No 3 (n 39) [45]. Concerning Latvia, in the Global Trends 2019 (n 42) 74 n 27, the UNHCR number includes figures from two separate laws. Persons determined as stateless under the Law on Stateless Persons (2004) 25 Latvijas Vēstnesis 5 (Latvia) (‘Latvian Law on Stateless Persons’) number 169 in 2019, while those determined under the Law on Former USSR Citizens (n 24) number 216,682. In conjunction, these figures constitute the total number of ‘persons under the statelessness mandate’ in the country, which includes ‘non-citizens’, indicating that ‘noncitizens’: enjoy a set of rights and obligations generally beyond the rights prescribed by the 1954 Convention and as such may currently be considered persons to whom the Convention does not apply in accordance with Article 1.2(ii). See also ‘Statelessness Index: Latvia’ (n 24). Côte d'Ivoire shows 955,399 ‘persons under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate’: Global Trends 2019 (n 42) 73. Statelessness in Numbers: 2020 (n 42) 1. 71