A/73/205 themselves in their day-to-day interactions with the state or with private entities. International travel is almost inconceivable, unless by illicit — and dangerous — means. Free movement within the state of residence, even if it is where the person was born and has all of his or her ties, can also be difficult. Arbitrary arrest and detention, including in the person’s home country, is not uncommon. In some cases, detention becomes prolonged or even indefinite, if the state is intent on expulsion, but no other country would allow the person to enter. Where a stateless person wants to assert their rights, or where they have become a victim of crime or exploitation, their statelessness can also stand in the way of accessing justice. 7 31. While citizenship may not exactly be the famous cliché of “the right to have rights”, 8 written by Hannah Arendt, herself an exiled German Jew deprived of her citizenship, it is close enough that to be stateless is to find oneself at a locked door, vulnerable and marginalized, unable to seek shelter or solace from the dangers and threats of a hostile world. As noted elsewhere, the disproportionate vulnerability of minorities to statelessness, as a result of State policies and legislation, “can leave them excluded from state structures, without the right to vote or access basic services such as healthcare or education. In extreme cases, statelessness may leave them vulnerable to violence and mass displacement”. 9 32. These dire consequences of statelessness have led UNHCR to conclude, in its Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2014–2024, that it would be deeply unethical to perpetuate these effects to the point that statelessness itself “is a profound violation of an individual’s human rights” when “solutions are so clearly within reach”. At the very least, it is clear that, for millions of stateless individuals, usually persons who are members of a minority, their statelessness is neither coincidence nor accident, but a direct result of a law, policy or practice in violation of international human rights law. Extent of statelessness as a minority issue 33. A pattern repeats itself in all regions: the largest groups of stateless persons are connected to a handful of specific minorities. In Africa, although there are difficulties in determining the status of numerous population groups owing to a lack of verifiable data, the vast majority of the continent’s stateless persons are to be found in one country, Côte d’Ivoire, where they number almost 700,000 and are members of the Dioula and other minorities. This situation is the result of changes to nationality legislation in the 1990s. 10 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are also thought to be many stateless persons, in particular among minorities such as the Banyamulenge, although precise figures are difficult to obtain. In both countries, the situation has been one of the main causes of conflict. In the Americas, the pattern repeats itself: almost all the 210,032 stateless persons whom UNHCR reported in its statistics for 2013 were found in a single country, the Dominican Republic, and almost all were members of a single minority, persons of Haitian descent. Some 10,000 persons were able to confirm their, or obtain, Dominican citizenship, and the others __________________ 7 8 9 10 18-12048 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, “Impact of statelessness”. Available at www.institutesi.org/world/impact.php. The human rights enumerated in various treaties are not, with a few exceptions, limited to citizens. All persons falling within a State’s jurisdiction or territory, whether citizens or not, are entitled to the vast majority of human rights recognized in international law. This is also confirmed by the Human Rights Committee in paragraph 10 of its general comment No. 31 (2004) on the nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States parties to the Covenant. Minority Rights Group International, “Denial and denigration: how racism feeds statelessness” (October 2017). Available at http://stories.minorityrights.org/statelessness/home/. According to UNHCR, some 692,000 individuals were stateless in 2017. See http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/persons_of_concern. 9/19