Source: Vatican News
Writer: Samara Rezwan
Editor: Jordan Wittbrot
28 November 2023
The issue of statelessness continues to hold significance in international law with a reported 4.3 million individuals being officially classified as stateless in 2021, and a belief that 10 million stateless individuals truly exist worldwide. The official definition of a stateless person is “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.” In other words, a stateless person can be defined as an individual who holds no nationality (About Statelessness, n.d.). Statelessness remains prevalent in modern-day society, particularly in the face of ongoing violence and forced displacement; its consequences are multifaceted, but are especially notable when viewing its effects on healthcare and legal representation (Stateless Minorities… n.d.). Common ramifications that stateless individuals face include the deprivation of adequate healthcare, diminished legal support, and increased challenges in obtaining essential documents such as identification cards. It is imperative to address these challenges as they not only marginalize stateless populations, but also heighten social instability, perpetuate the cycle of poverty, and further inaccessibility by hindering stateless peoples’ recognition under international law. To mitigate these effects, it is crucial to understand the implications of statelessness and its effects on healthcare and law; additionally, statelessness should be prioritized on the international legal agenda in a manner that is both beneficial and inclusive, taking into account contextual nuances and its impacts.
Statelessness remains a complex global issue with recent events underscoring its prominence in the face of elevated violence and forced displacement; these events raise critical questions about the origins of statelessness and the negative implications it carries. Historically, there have been several factors leading to statelessness, some of which include the loss or deprivation of nationality, changes in borders, or being born in a country that does not grant nationality solely based on birth (UNHCR US, n.d.). However, statelessness most commonly occurs due to exclusionary language in nationality laws. This language can occur from either unintended oversights regarding contextual nuances or deliberate discriminatory practices. Notably, over 75% of stateless individuals belong to minority groups, highlighting how intentional discrimination due to factors ranging from racial, ethnic, religious, social, or political standing, often renders them stateless (Stateless Minorities… n.d.). An effect of this discrimination is forced displacement. Individuals experience forced displacement when driven to leave their country of residence out of the fear of persecution and discrimination; once these individuals cross international boundaries, they then become labeled as “stateless refugees” (Statelessness Explained, n.d.). This instance can be seen in Myanmar with the Rohingya population. In August 2017, widespread violence posed a severe threat to the lives of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, forcing a majority of them to flee across the border into Bangladesh. Rohingya are one of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities with a distinct culture, language, and one of the largest percentages of Muslims in Myanmar (BBC, 2020), thus the predominantly Buddhist government of Myanmar denied the Rohingya citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law due to ethnic and religious discrimination with intense persecution and genocide occurring since then (Human Rights Watch, 2023). A minimum of 6,700 Rohingya were killed solely in the month of violence in 2017 and more than half a million Rohingya are still living in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine province, worrying UN investigators as the possibility of further genocidal actions looms. Of those who fled Myanmar, the majority sought refuge in Bangladesh, with Kutupalong being the largest refugee settlement in the world (BBC, 2020). These individuals now reside in some of the most densely populated refugee camps globally and are officially granted as stateless.
Beyond the challenges of physical displacement, stateless individuals also deal with legal complexities as they strive to secure representation and obtain essential legal documents. Without citizenship stateless people have no legal protection and often lack access to necessities such as employment and healthcare (United States Department of State, 2023); this is the main issue with statelessness under international law: once an individual lacks their own government and has to fall back upon their own rights, there is no authority left to protect them and no institution which will be held accountable (Kingston, L. N., Cohen, E. F., & Morley, C. P., 2010). Legal identification licenses are crucial in many aspects including employment, where if a stateless person lacks legal licenses they are more likely to be excluded from proper employment and forced into the poverty cycle (Stateless Minorities… n.d.), and without official identification documents lawyers may face difficulties in representing clients without clear citizenship status and therefore stray away from the case. There are also issues with legal aid programs as they are typically designed for citizens or individuals with a recognized legal status, thus excluding stateless individuals and leaving them without access to affordable or pro bono legal representation (Can LSC Grantees… n.d.). Furthering the idea of stateless people lacking accountable institutions and having to depend on themselves, many stateless individuals may fear detention and deportation depending on their country of residence, which discourages them from attempting to assert their rights or seek help in doing so. This process is often cyclical because stateless people frequently lack identity documents and are therefore often denied when trying to get important documents such as passports or IDs since they do not qualify (Can LSC Grantees… n.d.).
The challenges in maintaining legal documentation contribute to difficulties in accessing healthcare for stateless individuals; their limited access to healthcare is not only a result of obstacles related to documentation but also extends to their inability to access affordable national healthcare systems. Financial barriers further complicate matters as stateless individuals often face these barriers when attempting to find ways to reach hospitals. Stateless people are also denied the right to "medical citizenship”, which refers to an individual's access to healthcare services. Despite the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaiming the right to an adequate standard of living relating to well-being, including medical care, the comprehensive nature of the right to health underscores the interdependence of various human rights. The absence of a recognized nationality jeopardizes stateless individuals’ right to health, revealing the intersection between health and legal rights, as legal nationality dictates access to essential documents, ultimately impacting healthcare services. Additionally, stateless individuals frequently find themselves in an “international blindspot,” a concept that highlights the challenges of guaranteeing rights to those who lack official ties to a nation-state. This “international blindspot” results in the oversight of the basic human right to adequate healthcare, as there is no accountability for providing it to stateless individuals. The absence of recognized nationality thus leads to the denial or reduction of healthcare standards for non-nationals, thereby placing medical citizenship and the right to proper healthcare out of reach. Ultimately, the challenges faced by stateless individuals extend beyond merely the legal right to health. The absence of institutional safety nets fails to guarantee all aspects of health for stateless persons and this intersection of legal and institutional barriers highlights how stateless individuals are virtually denied any meaningful and adequate access to healthcare, resulting in significant health disparities.
The marginalization of stateless populations extends beyond affecting only their immediate communities; it also holds significance for a broader audience outside of these stateless communities, as exemplified by the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. Hosting approximately one million Rohingya refugees across “33 highly congested camps in Cox’s Bazar District” (UNHCR Data, n.d.), this large number of refugees exerts enormous pressure on the economy of a still developing nation and creates concerns in the realm of economics, human rights, and creates even possible concerns of security. Bangladesh's non-signatory status to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol means that Rohingya individuals cannot claim refugee rights in Bangladesh, thus the Bangladeshi government refers to them as “forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals” in order to avoid international pressure to provide legal status to Rohingya refugees under international law. This influx of “forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals” has placed significant strain on the Bangladeshi economy, especially since a considerable portion of the country’s population resides below the poverty line (Rahman, M. S., & Sakib, N. H, 2021). Furthermore, Bangladesh is a small country with a land area of 147,570 kilometers squared, which is only slightly larger than the US state of Iowa (Salisbury & Honey, 2023), but 50 times larger with a population of 161.4 million. This demographic causes Bangladesh to face food insecurity and struggles to ensure human development goals; additionally, with the enormous increase of refugees in 2017, Bangladesh faces a huge challenge of reaching its human security goal which works to protect people from both traditional and nontraditional threats such as poverty (Gregoratti, 2013). These efforts of reaching human security goals have been further hindered by insufficient financial support; in 2019, Bangladesh received only $302 million from the Joint Response Plan, falling significantly short of their requested amount of $920.5 million and creating a substantial gap in funding which created challenges of sustaining humanitarian support for refugees. The influx of refugees also led to humanitarian issues by causing a wage reduction of reportedly 14.3% for laborers and increased the prices of daily essentials by 50% with over 2,500 households falling below the poverty line. This increase in refugees can also be seen as a significant threat to Bangladesh in terms of generating militancy along the border. Despite previous success in combating militancy, the country’s military has been notably weakened in recent years due to several military attacks in the past decade. Against this backdrop and the crisis faced by Rohingya people in Bangladesh, such as limited work rights and freedom of movement, their vulnerability makes them susceptible to exploitation by international or local actors, which could potentially lead to terrorism (Rahman, M. S., & Sakib, N. H., 2021). This vulnerability is reflected in other contexts, as seen with Palestinian refugees. With approximately 40,000 displaced people in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees encounter similar challenges, including limited access to jobs and social services (Brookings, 2016). These instances show the multidimensional risks faced by host countries such as Bangladesh due to statelessness, with ripple effects extending far beyond immediate communities.
International law has worked to address the basic human rights of stateless individuals, yet inherent flaws within these legal frameworks hinder the assurance of human rights and legal support; therefore, a more culturally sensitive and situationally aware approach to statelessness is imperative within the framework of international law. Notable conventions such as the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention relating to the reduction and prevention of statelessness are existent frameworks under international law that help to support stateless persons (the Americas Network… 2020). Nevertheless, the several years it took the 1961 Convention to acquire the number of ratifying states it needed to reach its goal of eliminating discriminatory laws related to nationality displays the gaps that exist within these conventions. The 1951 Refugee Convention acknowledges statelessness and the persecution faced by stateless individuals but confines refugee status to those residing "outside the country of [their] former habitual residence." It wasn't until the 1990s that the United Nations formally recognized the significant presence of stateless individuals worldwide, shedding light on their legal status (Fullerton, 2015). Moreover, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 recognized the "right to health" and emphasized that individuals have the "right to the highest level of attainable health." However, this declaration did not effectively extend to stateless individuals, primarily due to the broad nature of the factors it encompassed, which proved inaccessible to stateless populations lacking documentation and basic human rights.
The components within this realm included "access to health services, resources necessary to achieve health, medical self-determination, the ability to resist conditions or policies that endanger health, health information and transparency, informed consent, and even the right to decision-making and accountability for health programs and policies'' (Kingston, L. N., Cohen, E. F., & Morley, C. P., 2010). The biggest step that needs to be taken in order to diminish these flaws is fostering awareness of language nuances within international laws. This involves eliminating discriminatory nationality laws to improve access to citizenship. Encouraging examples include the US Department of Homeland Security’s initiatives to combat discrimination and urge governments to repeal and amend discriminatory nationality laws. Facilitating issuing identification documents and establishing accessible pathways would significantly contribute to promoting the rights of stateless populations. This can be done by supporting services provided by embassies or consulates that deal with important documents like birth certificates and travel documents to make them more accessible. Furthermore, extending legal aid services to individuals at risk would provide support when navigating complex legal processes (OIM Oficina Regional Para Centroamérica 2023). Considering the prevalence of undocumented stateless individuals and obtaining more accurate data is also essential for creating more targeted assistance. Initiatives led by the UNCR and UNFPA, collaborating with national statistics offices, aim to enhance the quality and relevance of statistics on statelessness. Although the initial draft was projected for completion by May 2020, with the goal of presenting it for consideration in March 2021, it remains uncertain whether this timeline was fulfilled.
Overall, statelessness carries various repercussions, particularly impacting healthcare and legal representation. Insufficient access to medical care, legal support, and essential documents heightens the vulnerability of those without citizenship, perpetuating cycles of poverty and social instability. Events like the Rohingya crisis underscore the pressing need to address the challenges faced by people in this situation. Despite existing frameworks such as the 1954 and 1961 Conventions, persistent flaws hinder complete access to human rights for stateless populations. Addressing these issues requires culturally sensitive and situationally aware measures that consider language nuances within international laws, aiming to eliminate discriminatory practices and improve access to citizenship. Initiatives such as issuing identification documents, providing legal aid services, and gathering accurate data are crucial steps in enhancing support for those without citizenship. By correcting flaws in existing frameworks and advancing broader initiatives, a more equitable system can be made for stateless individuals, simultaneously contributing to a deeper understanding of the implications of statelessness within the realm of international law.
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