ABSTRACT
Statelessness is a human rights problem of global proportions. It affects people all over the world and can have a harmful impact on them, their families and wider communities. In absolute numbers, however, statelessness is documented as affecting far more people in Asia and the Pacific than in any other region of the world. Moreover, in many Asian countries, statelessness is inadequately documented or even completely undocumented. It is a phenomenon that remains poorly understood and its interaction with other issues of international concern—including minority rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, migration, democratic governance and the rule of law—often fails to attract the attention it deserves. This chapter places statelessness at its heart and explores different dimensions of this human rights issue. It offers a snapshot of statelessness in Asia, commenting on the scale and reach of the problem across the region. It then explores the interaction between statelessness and other human rights concerns in Asia, looking both at how different human rights violations have contributed to the denial and deprivation of nationality and how being stateless exposes those affected to subsequent, cumulative, human rights violations.
