Statelessness, Trauma and Mental Well-being This subsequently has important implications for the distribution of scarce resources for mental health and psychosocial support services. This paper clarifies the role of stressors in mediating the relationship between trauma exposure and current mental health and well-being among stateless populations. As such, the discussions contribute to the debates on the evolving nexus on psychosocial and legal discourse on the relative importance of addressing trauma in statelessness as part of an integrated approach. This paper draws on the authors’ experience as a clinical social worker and migrant (Author 1) and child protection social worker and social development specialist (Author 2). This paper explores the psychosocial characteristics of and rights violations of stateless persons and promotes the psychosocial care and support they would require. II. UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS (a) Definition and scope In this section, we tease out what definitions and data are applicable in determining who is stateless. According to Art. 1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, a stateless person is an individual ‘who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law’. This seems like an easy identification process based on this clause from the Statelessness Convention. However, the identification process to determine statelessness is complex because it includes both a factual and legal analysis.11 Identifying the statistics related to statelessness is a complex task, that is context specific and ‘one which must also consider that it may take several years of failed applications for documents for a person to find out that they are not, as it turns out, “considered as a national” by any state’.12 When it comes to identification of stateless persons, we concur that: A lower standard of proof should be applied when determining statelessness, for example by using the term ‘substantiating’ one’s statelessness instead of ‘proving’ it (similarly to refugee status determination). In addition, the burden of proof should be shared between the applicant and state authorities. The applicant’s main procedural obligation should be to cooperate with the authority, not to provide all necessary evidence.13 Global challenges on accurate statelessness numbers have been reported — leading to a lack of solid, well methodologically grounded statistics related to statelessness. Considering this, this paper ‘concentrates on addressing the problems [related to statelessness] than trying to get the “correct” statistics’.14 Despite the tension related UNHCR Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons (2014) 1 at 12. Bronwyn Manby ‘Statelessness statistics and IROSS: The UN Statistical Commission grapples with definitions’ Global Citizenship Observatory Robert Schuman Centre (2022) para 7, available at https://globalcit.eu/statelessness-statistics-and-iross-the-un-statistical-commission-grapples-with-definitions/, accessed on 09 November 2022. 13 Gabor Gyulani ‘Remember the forgotten, protect the unprotected’ (2019) 32 FMR 48 at 49. 14 Bronwyn Manby (2022) op cit note 12 para 3 10. 11 12 43