10 | Training handbook . Statelessness 1. Introduction 2. Guidance 3. Legal context (...) • • • In case the country you are researching does not publish relevant statistics on statelessness, it is worth reaching out to the appropriate agency or department to inquire if they gather data segmented by gender, age, and/or location. Collecting data on gender, age, and location can help provide a more nuanced understanding of statelessness and inform efforts to address it effectively 4. Research strategy 5. Appendices 2.2 Legal definition of statelessness and other statelessness concepts The international legal definition of a stateless person is provided by the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons as “a person who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law”.19 For stateless people, the lack of any nationality is not If you're researching European states, it’s highly merely the lack of a legal status or document. recommended you take a look at the European Network on Statelessness’ Statelessness Index It is a condition that deprives them of the basic rights which assesses how countries in Europe protect that most of us take for granted. They are denied a stateless people and what they are doing to prevent legal identity at birth and often refused education and opportunity during childhood, and may find themselves and reduce statelessness. unable to marry or work legally in adulthood. Even the Bear in mind that the specific data you need may basic ability to reside lawfully in their countries of birth not be available; this could be because it was never remains precarious. collected or because statistical information, such as census data, might rely on self-identification. In the Stateless persons may face multiple discrimination. case of statelessness, an individual may not identify This can be experienced as cumulative or additive themselves as stateless or the country concerned discrimination, where two or more forms of may mis-identify stateless people or be unable or discrimination happen at the same time but are not unwilling to reach them in statistical studies. related to each other. • Keep in mind that just because a piece of information is not available to the general public doesn't mean that stateless people do not exist. This merely indicates that the data has not been gathered or published. Furthermore, sometimes the data is available but it’s not correct. • In the case of the UK Home Office, you can also Persons at risk of statelessness request such information that has not already been published in the quarterly migration datasets by A person who is not stateless but is at risk of becoming submitting a Freedom of Information request. so is a person whose statelessness has not yet been determined, or a person whose statelessness may become evident over time.20 Or as intersectional discrimination, where two or more forms of discrimination interact in such a way that they are inseparable (see section 4.2 of this handbook for more information on taking an intersectional approach in your research). 19. This definition can be found explicitly in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, one of the two major international instruments that deal specifically with the issue of statelessness. https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wpcontent/uploads/1954-Convention-relating-to-the-Status-of-Stateless-Persons_ENG.pdf see p.6 20. ENS, Statelessness determination and protection in Europe, see p.3, September 2021 © Asylos, 2023 Back to contents