Joint Submission
to the Human Rights Council
at the 37th Session
of the Universal Periodic Review.
Australia
Introduction
1
The Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness (PMCS),1 Refugee Advice & Casework Service
(RACS),2 Statelessness Network Asia Pacific (SNAP),3 and Institute on Statelessness and
Inclusion (ISI)4 make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the right
to a nationality and human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness in Australia.
2
Four key areas of concern are raised in this submission:
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
Australia lacks a statelessness determination procedure, or specific visa category
for stateless persons, leaving stateless persons in Australia in a ‘limbo
characterised by vulnerability, insecurity and marginalisation’.5
Stateless persons in Australia are at real risk of mandatory, prolonged and
indefinite detention, noting that the High Court of Australia (HCA) has found it
permissible to detain stateless persons indefinitely.6
Australia’s existing, and proposed citizenship deprivation powers risk rendering
persons stateless. The recent general trend of expanding citizenship deprivation
powers in Australia has the capacity to render persons stateless, and increase the
global stateless population.7
Stateless persons face a disproportionate risk as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic.
1
The Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness1 (PMCS) is an expert centre at the University of Melbourne’s Law School that undertakes
research, teaching and engagement activities aimed at reducing statelessness and protecting the rights of stateless people in Australia, the
Asia Pacific region, and as appropriate more broadly. For more information see: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/statelessness.
2 The Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) is a community legal centre in New South Wales, Australia dedicated to assisting people
seeking asylum and refugees apply for protection in Australia. RACS has a dedicated program to assist stateless children born in Australia
to apply for citizenship under the statelessness provisions. RACS currently assists approximately 100 children in this process and works in
collaboration with PMCS in regards to research, policy and community advocacy in regards to statelessness in Australia. For more
information, see: https://www.racs.org.au/
3 The Statelessness Network Asia Pacific (SNAP) is a civil society coalition with the goal of promoting collaboration on addressing
statelessness in Asia and the Pacific. Launched in November 2016, the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific seeks to promote collaboration
through three focus areas: developing resources for evidence-based action, facilitating capacity strengthening opportunities and providing
technical support to SNAP’s members. For more information, see: https://www.statelessnessnetworkasiapacific.org/.
4 The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion 4 (ISI) is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting an integrated,
human rights-based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global
centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. The Institute has made nearly 70 countryspecific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges
related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 36th UPR Sessions. For more information see:
www.institutesi.org.
5 Michelle Foster, Jane McAdam and Davina Wadley, ‘The Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Australia: An Ongoing Challenge’
(Pt 2) (2016) 40(2) Melbourne University Law Review 456, 459, 497.
6 Al-Kateb v Godwin (2004) 219 CLR 562; M47/2018 v Minister for Home Affairs [2019] HCA 17.
7 Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Submission No 96 to Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Parliament
of Australia, Inquiry into Nationhood, National identity and Democracy (30 September 2019) 4
<https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/3253446/Submission-96_Nationhood_nov19.pdf>.
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