Statelessness

Aside from its mandate on refugees, UNHCR is also the agency mandated by the UN General Assembly to address statelessness. 

A stateless person is someone who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law. Statelessness may occur for a variety of reasons, including discrimination against particular ethnic or religious groups or based on gender; the emergence of new States and transfers of territory between existing States (State succession); and conflict of nationality laws. 

Whatever the cause, statelessness has serious consequences for people in almost every country and in all regions of the world. Stateless persons often have limited access to a range of rights such as identity documents, employment, education and health services. Statelessness can lead to forced displacement just as forced displacement can lead to statelessness. 

Because it is States that set the rules surrounding nationality, UNHCR works with governments, other UN agencies and civil society to address statelessness. 

For more information on UNHCR’s work on statelessness, you may consult the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2.0. 

Organisation working on statelessness