Education Rights for Stateless Bidoon Children in Kuwait: The Voice of Government Officials

According to the United Nations, a stateless person is someone who has no legal identity in any nation whatsoever. In Kuwait, there are almost 110,000 stateless people who are known as Bidoon, which literally means “without”. Since 1991 Bidoon children have been shut out of the public school system as they are considered illegal immigrants. The only point of contact for legal interaction between the government of Kuwait and the Bidoon is the Central Agency for Remedying Illegal Immigrants’ Status. This complex bureaucracy has two conflicting responsibilities: (1) to investigate claims of citizenship by the Bidoon; and (2) to provide limited government services, including financial support to attend private schools. This research seeks to better understand the government’s position regarding Bidoon education, and present the individual voices and beliefs behind the government policies. Seven government officials were interviewed, including the head of the Central Agency. Their responses, arranged here around specific themes of visibility/invisibility, inclusion/exclusion, and denial/access, suggest some possible explanations for the government’s seeming lack of ability to resolve a situation that has continued for decades. By exploring the multitude of opinions that are impacting government policy, the present study aims to enhance understanding of the political and procedural roadblocks that are preventing the Kuwaiti government from resolving problems around educational access, legal status, and the rights of Bidoon children.

Breaking the Presumption That Applicants of Statelessness Determination Procedures Are Foreign

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.

Stateless Person dalam tinjauan Hukum Nasional dan Hukum Internasional di Indonesia

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana pengaturan Orang Tanpa Kewarganegaraan atau Stateless Person berdasarkan instrumen hukum internasional maupun instrumen hukum nasional di Indonesia. Indonesia yang terdampak dalam globalisasi karena gencarnya promosi pariwisata memiliki pengaturan terhadap lalu lintas orang asing melalui Undang-undang Nomor 6 Tahun 2011 tentang Keimigrasiaan dan disisi lain Indonesia tidak mengakui keberadaan Orang Tanpa Kewarganegaraan berbeda dengan pengaturan sebagaiman tercantum dalam Convention Relating To The Status of Stateless Persons 1954. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bahwa pengaturan mengenai Orang Tanpa Kewarganegaraan di Indonesia untuk saat ini belum diatur secara khusus. Walaupun Indonesia telah meratifikasi International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa Indonesia belum mengatur dengan tegas dan dalam penanganannya terhadap Orang Tanpa Kewarganegaraan cenderung lambat yang mengakibatkan pendetensian melebihi ambang dari batas yang ditentukan. Adapun rumusan masalah yang diangkat yakni bagaimana pengaturan Orang Tanpa Kewarganegaraan dalam Hukum Internasional dan dalam hukum keimigrasian Indonesia beserta konsukuensi hukum yang di dapat. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalaha tipe normative dengan cara studi pustaka. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pengaturan Orang Tanpa Kewarganegaraan di lingkup Internasional berbeda dengan pengaturan di Indonesia karena tidak adanya peraturan yang tegas mengenai hal ini.

The social construction of statelessness in Canada: a study of national media 1939-2011

To explore notions of knowledge production and narratives of truth surrounding statelessness in Canada, this study employs a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology to a media analysis of 616 newspaper articles from Canada's two largest national newspaper, the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. Within a social constructivist analytical framework, it finds that using citizenship as a tool to divide 'us' from 'them', statelessness is constructed in such a way that reinforces power relations between those who belong in Canada and those who do not. This divide is achieved via the construction of the stateless person as the 'other' in Canadian society, the ill-recognition of statelessness as a phenomenon in and of itself, and thirdly, the construction of statelessness contributes to a blurring of the definitional clarity of statelessness, further complicating our understanding of statelessness as a separate and distinct form of status in the Canadian context.

The social construction of statelessness in Canada: a study of national media 1939-2011

To explore notions of knowledge production and narratives of truth surrounding statelessness in Canada, this study employs a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology to a media analysis of 616 newspaper articles from Canada's two largest national newspaper, the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. Within a social constructivist analytical framework, it finds that using citizenship as a tool to divide 'us' from 'them', statelessness is constructed in such a way that reinforces power relations between those who belong in Canada and those who do not. This divide is achieved via the construction of the stateless person as the 'other' in Canadian society, the ill-recognition of statelessness as a phenomenon in and of itself, and thirdly, the construction of statelessness contributes to a blurring of the definitional clarity of statelessness, further complicating our understanding of statelessness as a separate and distinct form of status in the Canadian context.

Part I International Refugee Law— Reflections on the Scholarly Field, Ch.8 The Intersection of International Refugee Law and International Statelessness Law

This chapter focuses on the intersection of international refugee law and international statelessness law. While refugee law, policy, doctrine, and research evolved, it was not until after the turn of the twenty-first century that international statelessness law started to draw much attention and to begin to emerge as a field of its own. As global interest in statelessness grows, the interaction between statelessness and forced displacement has also come back under the spotlight. Thus, the chapter provides an insight into the relationship between statelessness and forced displacement. It starts by unpacking how statelessness can manifest itself as a cause or consequence of displacement, as well as how statelessness can be a complicating factor for refugee protection and durable solutions. The chapter then offers a brief overview of key norms relating to the protection of stateless persons and the prevention and resolution of statelessness, setting out the contours of international statelessness law. It also looks at the implications of the statelessness–displacement nexus by exploring the conceptual and practical questions that arise when a refugee is also stateless, and when a stateless person is also a refugee.

3. Nationality, citizenship, and right of abode

This chapter considers the bases of nationality and citizenship, and traces the development of British nationality law, focusing on changes from 1948 to the present day. It looks at the effects of these changes on particular groups of people, characterised to a significant extent by progressive exclusion. It considers the fundamental incident of citizenship and the right to live in one’s own country, both as to the interaction of nationality and immigration law and as to the overall effect of full inclusion as a citizen. The bases for obtaining British nationality by registration and naturalisation are discussed, as are the powers of deprivation of citizenship. The possibility of asserting rights as a stateless person is also noted.

THE MARRIAGE, DOCUMENTS AND DIVORCE IN TURKEY

Turkish law is applied for all marriage procedures of asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons to be conducted in Turkey. Under Turkish law, a Turkish national and an asylum-seeker, refugee or stateless person, or two asylum-seekers or refugees of different nationalities, can be married by the Turkish authorities. All marriages carried out by the Turkish authorities are subject to the Turkish Civil Code and related regulations. Marriages are conducted by marriage officers at the Marriage Departments of municipalities. Couples intending to marry therefore need to submit the relevant documents to municipalities. Please see the section below on the required documents. It is important to note that only official (civil) marriages are legally recognized in Turkey, as defined under the Turkish Civil Code. Other forms of marriage, without an official marriage, are not recognized in Turkey. Getting an official marriage is important as it will secure and guarantee the legal rights of children and of spouses, especially women. Only after the official marriage is a religious marriage (carried out by imams) permitted.

Constitutional status of persons who are not citizens of the Russian Federation

Introduction. The constitutional and legal status of persons who are not citizens of Russia is directly related to their political, social, personal and economic rights and freedoms. This raises the problem of correctly determining the status of persons who do not have Russian citizenship due to the fact that the legislation contains many provisions covering the totality of legal relations related to the status of a foreign citizen and a stateless person, where the personal and social rights of a person do not depend on his / her citizenship of another state. Theoretical analysis. The article examines the content of the constitutional status of non-citizens on the territory of Russia. It follows from the content of the first chapter of the Constitution of the Russian Federation that the concept of personality includes any person who is both a citizen and a foreign citizen, or a stateless person, therefore, the rights and obligations established in relation to a person apply to non-citizens. Empirical analysis. The analysis of many rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation revealed that they are not related to citizenship and apply to all people, therefore, non-citizens should have the ability, enshrined at the constitutional level, to protect their rights in case of their violation by contacting state bodies and local self-government bodies. Results. Non-citizens enjoy the rights and bear obligations on the equal basis with the citizens of the Russian Federation, taking into account the peculiarities and restrictions established by federal laws and international treaties. There is a promising opportunity to improve Russian legislation by identifying an independent term of “non-citizens”, which will unite foreign citizens and stateless persons in order to implement comprehensive legal regulation for this category of persons.

PERSONALITY AS THE MAIN BENEFICIARY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The article examines the features of the status of a person as the main beneficiary of local self-government. It was revealed that based on the essence of the term "beneficiary", it refers to those persons who receive certain benefits, income or dividends not due to the active exercise of their rights, but to some extent "passively" due to their status or activities of others. It is has established that the very understanding of a person as a beneficiary of local self-government demonstrates a new emphasis in understanding how the municipal government should act and in whose interests. The center of such activity should be a person as a member of the territorial community, and his interests should be satisfied through the adequate activities of local governments determined by such interests. Person as the main beneficiary of local self-government appears: a citizen of Ukraine, a foreign citizen or a stateless person (stateless person) or a refugee; member of the territorial community; a resident of a village, settlement, city or association of villages, settlements, cities it is determined. A new approach to understanding the status of a person – a beneficiary of local self- government in a broad and narrow sense (in a broad sense – in the exercise of local self- government of all its powers, in the narrow – the exercise of local authorities in relation to vulnerable groups). It is determined that the legislation of Ukraine through the prism of the powers of local governments provides clear recipients (beneficiaries), which are mainly those categories of the local population who need various financial, material or other support and assistance – including socially vulnerable or vulnerable members of the territorial community. Thus, a person is a member of a territorial community, and his interests must be satisfied through the adequate activities of local self-government bodies determined by such interests.