Statelessness, protection and equality

This policy brief provides a context and typology of stateless people, before examining the international law and jurisprudence as well as human rights discourse and policy that concern them. This brief draws attention to the increasingly narrow gap between the rights afforded to citizens and non-citizens and the need to address problems of statelessness as violations of international human rights norms (Van Waas 2008; Weissbrodt 2008). It argues that the persistent problems associated with statelessness noted in this brief are equally a matter for development agencies, for the denial and deprivation of nationality and the discriminatory exclusion of particular communities has a poverty-generating function. The brief concludes with recommendations to reduce and eliminate statelessness.