statelessness

Article 1 of the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954 defines a stateless person as one who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. Statelessness may result from conflicts of nationality laws, State succession, discrimination, or deprivation of nationality. The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness aims to prevent it.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says everyone has the right to a nationality. India is not a party to the 1954 or 1961 Conventions. Indian citizenship is governed by Part II of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act, 1955, and stateless persons in India are treated as foreigners under the Foreigners Act.

Example

A child born to parents whose State does not pass on nationality, in a State that follows only jus sanguinis, may face statelessness.

In Indian law

• Article 1, Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954; Citizenship Act, 1955

See also

nationality · jus soli · jus sanguinis · refugee

Read more in the study notes

• Nationality: acquisition, loss, statelessness and the Nottebohm case (Public International Law)
• Citizenship: meaning, history, acquisition by birth, descent and naturalisation, and loss (Political Science - Organisation and Institution)
• State succession: theories, kinds and consequences (Public International Law)