Protection and Reduction of Statelessness in U.S.

Article 13 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Human rights and Stateless persons

The human rights system orders relation between individuals and the state. It does not regulate individuals on their citizenship status or statelessness limbo, it covers all human beings. I am talking about statelessness in the United States as this is my home. European Nations adopted all regulations that is consistent with domestic law and UN 1954 and 1961 Conventions including international treaties on human rights to deal with the fate and plight of stateless persons. Nothing of this is done here, in the United States. 

Human rights system sets the boundaries of what states can and cannot do with the respect to persons and property under their control, and also does not discriminate on citizenship status. International human rights law is addressed to states: its rules govern state behavior and the consequences of violating its norms fall on the shoulders of national governments, either person is stateless living there or citizen of that particular nation, and states are responsible for enforcing these rules and punishing violators. 

Let’s take one thing as an example. US does not have law in regards to protection and reduction of statelessness. We are not party of the UN 1954 and UN 1961 Conventions but we are party to major international laws in the field of human rights law that protect every single person, every single human being in spite of his/her location. This is very important and it does concern stateless persons as well.

As far as it concern stateless persons in the United States, I will take myself as an example, there are several violations of human rights as stated in American Convention on Human Rights. Rights to life. My rights of life is in violation. Everything I carved over 16 years in the United States, the life that I built was taken away from me. Rights to Humane treatment is in violation. Forced exile and confinement, mental and physical torture, all those abuses are in violation of Article 5 of American Convention. Rights to fair trial was in jeopardy as I did not exercise the fair trial during my asylum hearing since I have not had legal representation. We can go on and on about violations of human rights of stateless persons, their vulnerability and mistreatment by the top officials in the country we live in. 

Governments that ignore abuses of stateless persons by their immigration authorities encourage the build-up of tensions, which can lead to violence because stateless persons are tired and angry, fed-up and upset that the host nation they live in is not willing to introduce measures needed in protecting the rights of stateless persons as international human rights obligation.

  1. mikhailsebastian posted this