668 Arif nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”.25 Unfortunately, the Bihari community in Bangladesh has been without citizenship status since 1971. The stateless are denied access to fundamental rights, access to protection and to expression as persons under the law all over the world. It is accepted that all people should be adequately assisted and protected under international law and institutions.26 However, the Bihari community in Bangladesh has mostly been denied national and international assistance. The definition of a stateless person is provided by the 1954 Convention as “A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”.27 The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness d­ efines stateless persons in a similar manner as in the 1954 Convention.28 Prior to the 1954 Convention, statelessness was viewed merely as an indication of one’s status as a refugee. It is obvious that the Bihari community in Bangladesh falls under no conventional identity or category of such an international standard.29 They cannot be called refugees, because they were not displaced from their country of origin.30 Their peculiar status proves that the conventional definitions of the terms ‘refugee’ and ‘minority’ have limitations in describing the Biharis in Bangladesh.31 Due to their uncertain citizenship status, they are sometimes subject to discrimination by government institutions, especially in relation to employment and access to public services.32 It is difficult for anyone to live without effective citizenship, and life in the camps is often difficult, cramped and unsafe. The poor way of life for the Bihari community consists of wage labour, rickshaw pulling, small business enterprise, unemployment, lack of citizenship amenities, absence of land ownership and limited access to education.33 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 See Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (udhr), 1948. udhr is a un General Assembly Resolution, no–217A, 1948. Luke T. Lee, ‘Legal Status of Internally Displaced Persons’, 86 American Journal of International Law (1992) p. 630. In this regard Sir Humphrey Waldock, former President of the International Court of Justice (icj) stated ‘Rights which attach to all human beings equally, whatever their nationality’. See Article 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (entered into force 1960). See Article 1 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (entered into force 1975). Farzana, supra note 7. Ibid., p. 16. Ibid. Eric Paulsen, ‘The Citizenship Status of the Urdu Speakers/Biharis in Bangladesh’, 25 Refugee Survey Quarterly (2006) p. 54. Ibid. international journal on minority and group rights 25 (2018) 664-678 This content downloaded from 147.188.245.205 on Wed, 25 Oct 2023 15:43:57 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms <UN>