Human Rights | EssayIvy.com

Law 1

Topic: Human rights

Student’s Name:

Students number:

Institution:

Submitted to:

Date:

Law 2

Introduction

Statelessness is a term used for persons not belonging to a particular country or its

regulation. A lot is being done to tackle the matter but not done enough. This paper evaluates the

reasons for the continued occurrence of statelessness, the consequences of lacking citizenship

and the actions being taken to remedy the consequences and any further rise of statelessness.

Some of these reasons include the existence of laws that are conflicting. For instance, for one to

acquire nationality, s/he must be born in the territory of the state or by descent or naturalization.

Lack of either of the two renders someone as stateless. Being a citizen and recognized as one

offers the opportunity to access fundamental human rights. But for some reasons, not everyone

belongs to a state hence lacks citizenship. Because of this, fundamental rights are not provided

including heath care, employment, marriage, education and many others. This has led to the

upheaval of humanitarian organizations to step up their game in advocating for human rights. For

instance, due to their intervention, articles 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

explains that each person should be granted the right to nationality and should not be denied of it

or change it. A lot other conventions followed afterwards in a quest to protect the stateless which

are considered the most vulnerable of all groups in the world. Some of these conventions include

the convention on the rights of the child, conventions on the elimination of all forms of racial

discrimination and so on. Great strides have been made thereafter in protecting the stateless and

scraping off the issue of statelessness by issuance of birth registrations and nationalities during

birth but due to the rebirth of statelessness from time to time, a lot more can be done to cub the

issue. The following excerpt elucidates on the various reasons that lead to statelessness and the

various conventions, treaties and agreements that have been put in place to fight it and grant

every one equal rights.

Law 3

Justification

Citizenship is a legal standing of belonging to a particular nation(s) that is deliberated by

a government through birth or naturalization with the opportunity to delight in the specified

rights and obligations of that country (Nash, 1067). In as much as the legal entitlement offers

someone the opportunity of enjoying his or her rights, political and social structures also shape

up how these rights will be distributed. For instance, some countries are discriminatory on

nationality passage by women while others only allow for certain ethnic groups. Human rights

have now been legalized which simply means one needs a legal document to access these rights

and deprive those without of their rights. For instance since children of refugees constitute this

category of statelessness, they can perform civic duties like participating in election or access

public amenities. Right to nationality and citizenship is a human right and its violation means a

violation of other rights. Some social injustices are as a result of these deprivations of basic

rights connoting that upholding the right to citizenship and nationality is key to other human

rights.

Causes of statelessness

Challenges exist in conferring nationality to children born in the states’ land by stateless

parents’, circumstances or political upheavals e.g.

 Rising state of international terrorism has made many governments to fail in the issuance

of citizenship in a bid to protect their country. Any intruder is considered as a potential

threat and this only escalates the state of statelessness.

 Gaps in laws and policies that guide nationalism when being drafted, written and

implemented have rendered some people stateless.

Law 4

 Movement into and out of one country to the other can also complicate matters especially

in countries where nationality cannot be passed on by women or family ties.

 Gender and ethnic discrimination where some states deprive women of the right to pass

nationality by depriving them their rights. This becomes a challenge in the event that the

father is also stateless, unknown or not in a position to confer nationality. In the recent

past, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women,

prohibited sexual based discrimination and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of

Statelessness stipulated the endowment of nationality at birth for children born in

circumstances would render them stateless. Discrimination based on ethnicity plays a big

role in deprivation of citizenship. Some countries define their citizens based on ethnic

groups and anyone outside these brackets is considered a non-citizen and cannot be

identified as a citizen even by birth. The UN committee on the Elimination of racial

discrimination in 2014 outlined that it is a complete intrusion of the governments’

obligation to guarantee non biased pleasure on the rights to citizenship by depriving

nationality based on race, color, ancestry or local or cultural background.

 In the event of government upheavals, some citizens belonging to the former country are

rendered stateless because their nation does not exist or has come to be under the control

of another nation e.g. Ethiopia and Yugoslavia (Southwick, 45) or when the Soviet Union

disintegrated.

 Obstacles by the administration can make it hard to gain citizenship especially when the

nation of origin is questionable. They may be permitted to obtain citizenship but the

administration put on hurdles to bur those that are not likened by them to get it. For

instance they may use hefty documentation fees, put up unrealistic deadlines or even the

Law 5

simple language or literacy barrier affecting those with need of completing simple

procedures like birth registration and this may make it difficult to obtain citizenship. For

instance, in 2013, about 230 million children under 5 years were not registered according

to UNICEF.

 Citizenship renunciation where a person decides to abandon his country of birth or

inheritance. This may render someone stateless in the event s/he had not sought for

another one

 As a result of being in a non – state territory. Some people may be dwellers off places

where statehood does not exist and hence they are nationals of no state thus stateless.

Consequences of statelessness

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights offers everybody with the right to

citizenship. Basic human rights are drafted on the basis of equality, liberty, dignity and

universality. Many states have sort to protect stateless people in their area of jurisdiction and

reduce statelessness. The reason as to why this is done is because statelessness is a human right

problem. Based on it, other human rights are violated and an obstruction towards getting justice.

From the causes discussed above, it is clear that other injustice such as inequality and

discrimination are fortified in statelessness. The other way round is also true i.e. resolving the

issue of statelessness is the beginning of the realization of other human rights. The quest by the

UNHCR to end statelessness shows the growing concern of the violation of basic human needs.

More than 10,000,000 people worldwide are considered stateless. To cub sustainably, initiatives

have been launched to provide birth certification and legal identity at birth. Statelessness comes

with consequences, for instance, the state may hold back some of the rights of the stateless

Law 6

people e.g. voting, education, employment, marriage and the right to see a doctor. They are

treated as intruders and foreigners even in the countries where they were born. This makes them

the most vulnerable group in the world. The results are lowering of self - identity and dignity.

The most affected are children. Some inherit statelessness while others due to discriminatory

laws, cannot get citizenship or a nationality.

People lacking citizenship live in unwarranted and vulnerable conditions because of the

lack of legal recognition required to exercise humanly rights and cannot be protected

diplomatically by the government. Worst case scenario is that due to deplorable conditions and

lack of access to jobs and other basic wants, poverty becomes inevitable and face possible

expulsion from their countries of residence.

Remedies to statelessness and citizenship

The international community have pledged and made treaties, commitments and agreements

to safe guard the right of and end statelessness. Some of them include

 Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, 2006 which outlined individual

governments that are party to the convention will recognize people who are physically

disabled and their rights to locomotion, free will of dwelling place and nationality in the

same way those without disabilities have. These particular groups are also entitled

without restrictions to obtain and change citizenship. Disabled children are entitled to

immediate registration after birth and citizenship (Miranda, 379).

 Convention on the rights of the child (1989) in part states that governments party to the

convention respect a child’s rights and preserve their identity and citizenship. In the event

Law 7

that a child has no identity, the government will offer support and security while restoring

his/ her identity (Miranda, 279).

 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women of 1979

obliges states to offer equal rights to both genders in acquiring, changing and retaining

their nationality and that of their children.

 Convention on the elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965 that require

participating governments to eradicate all forms of ethnic biasness and assure everybody’

rights including that of nationality without any discrimination whatsoever.

Although states have pledged to adhere to the agreements, from time to time, the issue of

statelessness comes up. This is mostly driven by the complex political dynamics and sudden

developments (Southwick, 493). This in turn makes it terrible for them to access healthcare,

education, employment or any legal services like marriage. For there to be a significant

difference, governments, non-governmental organizations and Agencies like UNHCR need to

work hand in hand to end the issue of statelessness. Deprivation of a Nationality is in all manners

a breach of fundamental human right. Citizenship has supreme significance for an opportunity to

enjoy additional essential rights in a country. It bears political protection and serves as a legal

requirement for accessing basic human rights. UNHCR has been mandated by the UN to protect

persons considered stateless alongside its mandate of protecting and assisting immigrants. Its

duties include: identification of stateless cases, reduction of non-citizenship, prevention of

statelessness and assisting the stateless. Their efforts can be felt as they offer a platform where

the stateless can actually go and file their grievance and receive the much needed help. Refugees

and stateless people are more or less the same because both of them find themselves in a country

that does not recognize them as its citizen. With the continued emphasis on respecting human

Law 8

rights, women as well as women can voice their concerns and can be in a position to be heard.

For citizenship, at least they can secure the citizenship of their children especially at birth which

is better than nothing at all.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is evident that the issue of statelessness is still a problem in

many countries rendering the stateless vulnerable. The aspect of depravation of fundamental

human rights makes it a global concern forcing humanitarian agencies to chip in. The right to

citizenship is so basic that the lack of it means lack of other basic needs while the violation of the

same means violation of other rights. The collaboration of various agencies and governments to

do away with the issue of non - citizenship is required so as to maintain a sustainable mechanism

of granting everyone equal rights and equal opportunities. With the hurdles that exist in

scrapping off the issue of statelessness, the government can do much more in order to ensure the

safety of those lacking citizenship while safeguarding the citizenship of those being born.

Poverty in any nation is a setback to economic growth and governments can only do as much to

eradicate it by giving the fundamental rights back to the stateless. Treaties and conventions serve

as a good checklist to the adherence of the stipulated international laws and policies. Citizen or

no citizen, basic rights don’t change and it’s the duty of the states to grant them to the people.

Law 9

Works cited

Contemporary forms of statelessness: the intersection between the lack of a recognized

nationality, human rights, inequality, and development. London school of economics and

political science, Houghton street, London.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/humanRights/events/2016/ContemporaryFormsOfStatelessness.asp

Farooq, Annam. "Expunging Statelessness from Terrorist Expatriation Statutes." Hofstra L. Rev.

44 (2015): 933.

Miranda, Morgan G. "A (Stateless) Stranger in a Strange Land: Flores-Villar and the Potential

for Statelessness Under US Law." J. Gender Race & Just. 15 (2012): 379.

Nash, Kate. "Between citizenship and human rights." sociology 43.6 (2009): 1067-1083.

Phuong, Catherine. "Improving the United Nations Response to Crises of Internal

Displacement." International Journal of Refugee Law 13.4 (2001): 491-517.

Southwick, Katherine. "Ethiopia-Eritrea: statelessness and state succession." Forced Migration

Review 32 (2009): 15.

Place new order. It's free, fast and safe

Paper type

Deadline

Page count

550 words

Total price: $ 15.00

Our customers say

Jeff Curtis

USA, Student

"I'm fully satisfied with the essay I've just received. When I read it, I felt like it was exactly what I wanted to say, but couldn’t find the necessary words. Thank you!"

Ian McGregor

UK, Student

"I don’t know what I would do without your assistance! With your help, I met my deadline just in time and the work was very professional. I will be back in several days with another assignment!"

Shannon Williams

Canada, Student

"It was the perfect experience! I enjoyed working with my writer, he delivered my work on time and followed all the guidelines about the referencing and contents."