Statelessness

Couple of questions for you.

Who are the world's largest stateless group?

Stateless.

So it's a people group-

So it is a people group-

The Jews had no capital behind them and no country to return to.

Statelessness was the problem the movement existed to solve.

There's an even closer parallel, and it rarely enters these debates.

In the 17th century, the Persian Empire emptied much of eastern Armenia of Armenians in its wars with the Ottomans.

And now, our feature millennium appointment.

United Nations member states to the Convention or Treaty on the Reduction of Statelessness celebrated the 65th anniversary of the adoption of that treaty on Sunday.

The treaty was adopted by the United Nations on August 30, 1961, to prevent and decrease the number of stateless people around the world.

A stateless person is someone who is not recognized as a citizen or national by any country.

Its current Director for International Protection and Solution is Elizabeth Tan.

She addressed reporters in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday, August 28, and explained the problems associated with statelessness.

Statelessness is not an abstract issue.

It affects almost every aspect of individuals' lives.

The international system is built on the assumption that every person has exactly one state that's responsible for them.

Statelessness is what happens when that assumption breaks.

Which brings us to Daniel's third question.

Once you're in that situation, can you actually go anywhere?

It's not that they're legally prohibited from traveling.

It's that the practical barriers are so high and the consequences of something going wrong are so severe that the rational choice is to stay put.

Statelessness becomes a mobility trap.

If the country you're trapped in is persecuting you.