A/73/205 citizenship. Denying or stripping them of citizenship can be an effective method of compounding their vulnerability and can even lead to mass expulsion. Once denied or deprived of citizenship, minorities are inevitably denied protection of their basic rights and freedoms, including minority rights as established in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. 27. Her comments were almost prescient in relation to what would befall the Rohingya minority of Myanmar, currently one of the largest stateless groups in the world and the fastest-growing humanitarian crisis. It was at the same time a recognition of the plight of other minorities who have, throughout the twentieth century, lost or been denied citizenship. These include, to name but a few, the Kurds of the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic and the Palestinians in the 1960s, 6 the Dioula and other northern ethnic groups in Côte d ’Ivoire and the Lhotshampa minority of Bhutan in the 1970s, the Banyamulenge in the Demo cratic Republic of the Congo and the Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia in the 1990s, and the Haitian minority in the Dominican Republic in the 2010s. 28. There are other, far from savoury, historical precedents that predate the Second World War and highlight the dangers of targeting minorities as “undesirables” to be excluded from the body politic. At various times, indigenous peoples, colonial populations or those of certain despised “races” would not be deemed worthy of equal citizenship to their “superiors” or “masters”. Of the many examples in this category is, of course, one of the most notorious: the “Nuremberg Laws” announced at the annual rally of the Nazi Party in September 1935 would begin a process of institutionalized racism that would result in the statelessness of some German Jews who were excluded from Reich citizenship and would contribute to such dehumanization of minorities that the “final solution” and the Holocaust would become possible in one of the most “civilized” societies in Europe. 29. The reasons why minorities are those who so often have no nationality are of course diverse, and many do not involve patterns of racism or discrimination, but common threads clearly appear around the world in terms of legislation and practices that result in massive statelessness affecting particular minorities. Importance of being a citizen 30. Having a nationality, i.e. the formal status of citizenship, is of overwhelming importance to everyone’s lives. Not being a citizen often has tremendous dire consequences: The harsh reality for many stateless persons is a story of lack of opportunity, of lack of human rights protection and of lack of participation. They face challenges in all areas of life, including: accessing education and h ealthcare, finding gainful employment, buying or inheriting property, registering a car or a business, obtaining a birth certificate, driving license, marriage certificate or even death certificate, opening a bank account or getting a loan; falling back on social security, and enjoying a pension. Obtaining a passport or being issued any form of identity documentation is extremely difficult, such that many stateless persons have no proof that they exist and no means by which to identify __________________ 6 8/19 Palestine was admitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2011; the General Assembly adopted resolution 67/19, by which it accorded Palestine non-member observer State status in the United Nations, in 2012; and from 2014 the State of Palestine acceded to numerous multilateral treaties. A majority of the world ’s Governments have recognized the State of Palestine. However, there are still no clear rules relating to acquisit ion or loss of Palestinian citizenship and there remains uncertainty as to who is eligible to be recognized as a national of the State of Palestine. 18-12048