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11. Colonial Legacies in Syrian Nationality Law and the Risk of Statelessness

Author:
Malak Benslama-Dabdoub
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
The millions of Syrians born or living in exile as a result of the ongoing conflict has dramatically increased the number of people from Syria with no nationality. In this regard, Syrian nationality law has been criticised for containing discriminatory provisions and failing to address the risk of statelessness. Nonetheless, the responsibility of colonialism in creating such discrimination has been largely overlooked. One decade after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, this article looks back at the colonial roots of Syrian legislation governing nationality. Through a critical legal and historical analysis, it reveals the hidden colonial legacies of Syrian citizenship, by highlighting the responsibility of European colonial powers in introducing gender-based discrimination in domestic legislation, rendering Kurds and Palestinians stateless, and creating the practice of arbitrary denationalisation. This paper ends with a call for more research on colonial legacies within citizenship and statelessness studies.
Topic:
Law, Colonialism, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

12. People's Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa

Author:
Darren Ekema Equmbue Monono
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
The right to nationality, enshrined in art 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, is absent in the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, known as the Banjul Charter. On-going efforts by African institutions to address this gap, with a view to eradicating statelessness in the continent have, however, focused on the right to nationality as an individual right. This has undermined the spirit of the Banjul Charter, which consecrates peoples’ rights as an African specificity. This article highlights the Banjul-led African human rights system and its specificities of human rights, particularly with regard to collective community and peoples’ rights. Based on the recognition and communitarian theories, it examines different concepts related to collective rights and highlights the manifestation of peoples’ rights in African case law. It then analyses the nexus between peoples’ rights to nationality and statelessness in the continent. It concludes that the eradication of statelessness by 2024 in Africa cannot be effective unless the focus is on peoples’ collective rights to nationality.
Topic:
Human Rights, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Africa

13. Breaking the Presumption That Applicants of Statelessness Determination Procedures Are Foreign

Author:
Paola Pelletier Quinones
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article considers the situation of those who apply for a determination of their status as a stateless person but could, nonetheless, be nationals of the state in which they apply. Cases of in situ statelessness provide the most opportunity for the identification of these situations. After having identified 23 formal Statelessness Determination Procedures (‘SDP’) adopted as of 2020 from 23 countries, it is conclusive that these norms presume the applicant is foreign. However, eight countries have been mapped with safeguards in their SDP norms recognising the possibility that there could be identified applicants who may be nationals and what to do in cases of doubt. These safeguards are adopted by four countries in the Americas (Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay and Argentina) and four countries in Europe (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey). These constitute good practices that should be taken into consideration by further SDP norms adopted in the future, modifications of current SDP norms and statistics. This issue constitutes a ‘red flag’ for raising awareness of discriminatory state policies that assume stateless applicants are foreign and should receive second-class citizenship (naturalization), rather than refer the case to the corresponding national civil registry authorities and facilitate the access to nationality. The objective of this article has not yet been analysed by doctrine or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Topic:
United Nations, Refugees, Identity, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. TP v Minister of Home Affairs (Sentence No 9140, 22 April 2014) (Tribunal of Rome)

Author:
Paolo Farci
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
There are two procedures to determine statelessness in Italy. One is under the competence of the Ministry of the Interior, which can certify, pursuant to the administrative procedure under art 17 of Decree of the President of the Republic No 572,1 the statelessness of applicants who are able to show: (a) a birth certificate; (b) documentation relating to residence in Italy; and (c) any document suitable for demonstrating statelessness. The other procedure is under the competence of the civil courts.2 This judicial procedure does not require applicants to provide evidence of their lawful status or residence and thus, it is the route followed by most stateless persons.3 The present case, TP v Minister of Home Affairs,4 concerns the latter route to statelessness determination and involves TP’s application to the Tribunal of Rome to recognise his status as a stateless person. This case represents an unusual example of a court using its inquisitorial powers to seek evidence in support of its ruling and, as such, it set a judicial precedent, which can assist the determination of similar proceedings. It was also the first time that a court found the Government of India’s practice regarding the treatment of Tibetans born in India to Tibetan parents amounted to a denial of nationality
Topic:
Law, Courts, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

15. Legal Identity and Statelessness in Southeast Asia

Author:
Christoph Sperfeldt
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Millions of people worldwide are stateless or do not have proof of their legal identity. As a result, they face daily obstacles from lack of access to a range of social, political, and economic rights. Around 40 percent of the identified stateless population live in the Asia Pacific region, with the majority of them residing in the countries of Southeast Asia. While some of these people are refugees or migrants, most belong to minorities living in the country where they were born. Their lack of proof of nationality or other forms of legal identity poses significant challenges to human rights, governance, and development. International conventions aim at improving their status, but have been poorly subscribed. Much of the work to solve the problems will have to be done at the national level, where interest is increasing. Since the forced mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar, many have reached the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia, driving home the implications of unresolved situations of statelessness.
Topic:
Human Rights, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Malaysia, Asia, and Southeast Asia

16. Factsheet: Islam, Immigration, and the American Courts

Author:
Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:
The Naturalization Era (1790–1952) was a defining period for immigration and conceptualizations of citizenship in the United States. During this era, Muslim immigration and naturalization were limited by laws that barred or severely restricted immigration from Muslim-majority areas of the world and court rulings that reserved naturalization rights for white individuals. In the midst of the civil rights movement, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the doors to increased immigration from Muslim-majority countries. In April 2021, the US House of Representatives passed a bill titled the NO BAN Act, which would limit the ability of any US president to impose a travel ban on the basis of religion.
Topic:
History, Immigration, Naturalization, Slavery, Courts, Civil Rights, Nationality, African Americans, and Muslims
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

17. The Right to a Nationality: No Time to be Complacent

Author:
Erika Feller
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The right to a nationality is often taken for granted. Over the course of decades, UN member states have enshrined this right through fundamental instruments, notably the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet con- servative estimates hold that approximately 10 million people spread across every continent are denied a nationality.1 Some, but not all, are refugees. Collectively, these individuals are stateless—they lack any claim to a nationality recognized or assumed by any state. For many years, statelessness was a forgotten issue, relegated to the realm of state sovereignty prerogatives. Recently, states and the UN have begun to focus on the pressing nature of the problem. They have made progress in addressing statelessness as a global, collectively shared challenge. However, the UN target of eradicating statelessness by 2024, while a fine aspiration, continues to face significant hurdles. These obstacles include a serious dearth of informa- tion about the problem’s scope, discriminatory national legislation and policies that obstruct UN efforts, an ambiguous international legal framework, and the absence of solutions that are accessible to stateless individuals.
Topic:
Sovereignty, United Nations, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

18. Mapping Minorities’ Vulnerability to Hate Speech and Denationalisation with a Focus on East and Southeast Asia

Author:
Katalin Berenyi
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This paper explores whether minority groups are more vulnerable to hate speech, human rights violations, denationalisation and mass atrocities in light of the deliberate lack of state protection through the lens of recent incidents in East and Southeast Asia. The paper also examines the role of social media giant Facebook in spreading hate speech online and whether it may have had any liabilities in relation to the hateful posts that were spread online against the Rohingyas in Myanmar and, more recently, against the Muslim minorities living in the State of Assam in India. The paper concludes by (1) advising policy-makers to adopt and implement strong anti-hate speech laws, clearly criminalising both online and offline hate speech on the national level, as well as to (2) refrain from denationalising minority groups leaving them stateless or at the risk of statelessness and thus avoid instrumentalising nationality for political gains.
Topic:
Minorities, Hate Speech, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Asia and Southeast Asia

19. The Right to a Nationality and the Right to Adequate Housing An Analysis of the Intersection of Two Largely ‘Invisible’ Human Rights Violations

Author:
Benjamin Gronowski
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Millions of individuals around the world face challenges enjoying their right to a nationality, and millions more face challenges enjoying their right to adequate housing. While these human rights violations are recognised in general terms, little research has considered the extent to which these human rights abuses intersect as stateless persons face violations of specific socioeconomic rights, especially the right to adequate housing. This research attempts to fill that gap. This analysis explores the term adequate housing and the various legal instruments that enshrine this right, as well as the unique challenges faced by stateless persons in its enjoyment. This research argues that states have failed to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing for stateless persons in a number of contexts and that these failures are particularly acute for stateless persons with additional marginalised identities, which can then result in additional human rights violations. This analysis examines how previous policy solutions have failed to adequately consider the unique needs of inadequately housed stateless persons and calls attention to the need for more holistic and inclusive approaches to realise the right to adequate housing for all, which must include stateless persons.
Topic:
Human Rights, Housing, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. The Nation State Law - Tehila Frideman

Author:
Tehila Frideman
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Israel/Palestine Creative Regional Initiatives (IPCRI)
Abstract:
The Nation State Law
Topic:
Law, Citizenship, Discrimination, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Palestine