Statelessness, Development, and Protection of ‘Disadvantaged Groups’ I. INTRODUCTION A stateless person, in a precise legal phrase or as defined in international law, denotes a person not considered a citizen by any state, under the operation of its law.1 Statelessness is prohibited under international law; it is often induced by the refusal of a person’s right to nationality, birth registration, and denationalisation or renunciation of nationality by several factors, including socio-political circumstances.2 Regrettably, statelessness remains a highly contested subject matter in many aspects, including data, statistics, definitions, and terminologies, and politically, it is facing resistance. For instance, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistical reporting estimated 4.2 million stateless people across 94 countries (including those of undetermined nationality in 76 countries).3 Given the UNHCR’s assumption that the number of stateless persons is substantially higher, and the inability of most countries to collect adequate data on statelessness, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) projected the existence of at least 15 million stateless people globally.4 The restriction of their basic rights — such as access to birth registration and identity documentation, and socio-economic opportunities — healthcare, education, property ownership, legal employment, freedom of movement and political participation, undermine their individual potentials. Also, their ‘difficulties in accessing opportunities, owning or registering businesses; limited access to bank accounts or loan(s); and, in some cases, the threat of extortion, detention or expulsion’ often trap them in poverty and extreme circumstances across the world. 5 Consequently, marginalisation and refusal of their basic rights generate social mobility tensions, including socio-economic crises,6 and thus, constitute a major development problem over successive generations. Development is a multi-dimensional concept that encompasses the reorganisation and reorientation of a socio-economic and political system toward improving the quality of human lives. This implies the process of bringing about a social change that enables people to attain their human potential, capabilities, and aspirations.7 According to Michael Todaro and Stephen Smith, development highlights three important objectives. The first entails raising human living standards, i.e., incomes and consumption, and general well-being, including health and education, through relevant growth processes. The second aspect emphasises United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 1954, Article 1(1). Brad Blitz 'Statelessness: Advocacy campaigns and policy development' (2009) 32 Nationality for All at 25. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 'UNHCR urges governments to accelerate progress and resolve plight of world’s stateless' (2021), available at https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/press/2021/11/618387874/ unhcr-urges-governments-accelerate-progress-resolve-plight-worlds-stateless.html 4 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) 'Statelessness in numbers: 2020 – An overview and analysis of global statistics’ (2020), available at https://files.institutesi.org/ISI_statistics_analysis_2020.pdf 5 ISI ‘Statelessness, human rights and the sustainable development agenda’ (2017), available at http://children.worldsstateless.org/3/childhood-statelessness-and-the-sustainable-development-agenda/statelessness-human-rights-and-the-sustainable-development-agenda.html 6 United Nations Development Group (UNDG) 'Statelessness: UNDG guidance note on human rights for resident coordinators and UN country teams' (2017). 7 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 'Development' (2020) Development Matters, available at https://www.oecd.org/development/ 1 2 3 57