Unravelling Anomaly Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of stateless Persons

This is a report about discrimination and the human rights protection of stateless persons throughout the world, with a particular emphasis on the issue of detention. The report discovers that presently international human rights law is not sufficiently utilised to protect and fulfil the human rights of stateless persons. This is partly due to the existence of the parallel “statelessness mechanism” in international law which affords more restricted and modest protection to the stateless. The resultant lacuna in protection which is manifestly clear in detention related issues must be effectively addressed, and this report proposes recommendations in this regard.

This report comprises three parts. Part One analyses the concept of statelessness – the challenge that it poses to notions of international human rights and national sovereignty; and the boundaries of statelessness – what is meant by de facto and de jure statelessness, how useful the distinction between the two is, and whether a more inclusive approach to defining statelessness would result in better protection for all stateless persons. In Part Two, the report narrows its focus to the detention of stateless persons. It begins by surveying internationally accepted standards and norms pertaining to the detention of stateless persons and then explores practices of detention in the contexts of immigration, national security and criminal law – drawing from the field research conducted by ERT in countries around the world. Part Three identifies some positive developments and good practices adopted around the world, which are steps in the right direction to be further developed and replicated. It also provides recommendations based on observed good practices and the research findings of ERT.