Statelessness in Canada: socio-political exclusion and the negation of 'stateless persons' human rights

Abstract

<p>Given their lack of recognised citizenship and their inability to obtain travel and identification documentation, stateless persons are at high risk for both social and political exclusion. Consequentially, stateless people experience human rights violations in the forms of; the inability to move freely, the use of arbitrary detention, and the denial of access to services that grant fundamental rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Canada does not currently have a stateless determination process for identifying statelessness within its law, an issue that likely reinforces why statelessness is a highly under-researched issue within Canadian academia. This body of work provides an overview of the current state of affairs in Canadian literature, in the form of a literature review. By outlining gaps within Canadian academia, this paper provides recommendations for areas of additional research. Doing so ultimately highlights the importance of ensuring all persons are afforded citizenship rights.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Keywords: Statelessness, Canada, Citizenship, Human Rights, International Obligation, State Sovereignty, Securitization, Immigration Detention, International Human Rights Law. </p>