Statelessness
When people belong to no country at all: the legal framework addressing statelessness and the plight of the world's stateless populations.
Belonging to No Country
A stateless person, as defined by the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, is someone 'who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.' UNHCR estimates that at least 4.4 million people are stateless worldwide, though the true number is likely much higher because stateless people are often undocumented and invisible to census systems.
Statelessness strips people of the right to have rights. Without nationality, people cannot vote, work legally, own property, travel, access education or healthcare, or even register the births of their children, potentially creating intergenerational statelessness. Hannah Arendt described statelessness as the loss of 'the right to have rights,' because without citizenship in any state, there is no government obligated to protect you.
