Minorities

KEY MESSAGES

• Discrimination against minorities is a major driver of statelessness: it can cause statelessness, put groups at risk of statelessness, and maintain intergenerational statelessness.
• More than 75% of the world’s stateless population belong to minority groups.
• Statelessness intersects with and exacerbates barriers that minority groups already face, resulting in a restriction of access to basic rights and services, and leading to further discrimination, both by the state and non-state actors.
• Minorities are made stateless or at risk of statelessness for a variety of reasons, and the majority of the causes of statelessness affect minority groups. These include historical (forced) migration, state succession, mass deprivation of nationality, and discrimination.
• Various international conventions protect minorities and indigenous peoples’ right to nationality, without discrimination, and minority statelessness is gaining increasing attention in international human rights mechanisms such as the UPR.
• Increased mobilisation in recent years by minority groups themselves has led to successful strategic litigation, paralegal work, and advocacy.

MINORITIES AND STATELESSNESS

It is estimated that more than 75% of the world’s stateless population belong to minority groups. Minority groups are disadvantaged ethnic, national, religious, linguistic or cultural groups, with a distinct identity, who number fewer than the rest of the population of a country. Discrimination against minorities is a major driver of statelessness: it can cause statelessness, put groups at risk of statelessness, and maintain intergenerational statelessness. 

Minorities are often discriminated against on a variety of grounds – including, but not limited to race, minority status, religion, ethnicity, belief, language, gender, sex, disability, as well as multiple forms of discrimination (which is known as intersectional discrimination). Access to nationality may be denied on the basis of one or more of these grounds, for instance if the law lists specific ethnic groups who qualify for citizenship or sets religious criteria for naturalisation. Explicit legal “disqualifiers” are relatively rare, but it is more common for laws that appear neutral to be applied in a way that discriminates against minority groups in practice – for example by setting unreasonable administrative requirements to confirm citizenship.

Multiple discrimination can also affect the nationality rights of minority groups. For instance, women belonging to minorities can be further marginalised and stigmatised by gender discrimination in nationality laws, affecting their ability to acquire, change, or retain their nationality, as well as confer nationality to their children. Minorities may also be at increased risk of deprivation of nationality – affecting both entire groups, as well as individuals.

The underlying drivers of discrimination against minorities are numerous, and include racism, xenophobia, discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or nationality, as well as religious or gendered prejudice. Drivers of discrimination often revolve around a state’s desire to shape its polity, based on a particular conception of national identity. Prejudice rooted in ethno-nationalism, where the nation is defined in terms of “assumed blood ties and ethnicity”, results in the exclusion of certain groups, or even scapegoating and blaming of minorities for a state’s failures – economic, political, or otherwise. Minority groups, once stateless or at risk of statelessness, take the brunt of further state discrimination – with other restrictions or forms of exclusion justified because they are not citizens of that country. Statelessness thereby intersects with and exacerbates barriers that minority groups already face, resulting in limited access to basic rights and services, and leading to further discrimination, both by the state and non-state actors.

PROMOTING THE RIGHT TO NATIONALITY FOR MINORITIES

Various international standards protect the right to nationality for minority groups, including the ICCPR, ICESCR, CERD, CRC, CAT, CEDAW, CMW, and CRPD. CERD Article 5(d)(iii) explicitly prohibits discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to nationality, as well as containing broader principles of non-discrimination and equality. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) also provides in Article 6 for the right to nationality for indigenous peoples, and in Article 2 for non-discrimination. 

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities also provides important guidance, and the UN forum on Minority Issues plays a key role in promoting dialogue and encouraging adherence to the UN declaration, meeting annually to discuss key thematic issues. In 2018, the 11th session was specifically dedicated to statelessness as a minority issue. The work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, who is mandated to raise awareness and increase visibility of minority issues, is also key in ensuring minority issues remain on the human rights agenda. 

Minority issues have also gained more attention within the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council. In the first cycle of the UPR, just 5 recommendations related to discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to nationality on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, and disability – but this climbed to 28 recommendations during the 3rd cycle. Nevertheless, the attention given to nationality rights represents only a tiny fraction of the total recommendations dedicated to minority rights, racial discrimination or freedom of religion within the UPR. UN Treaty Bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) have also been active in certain country contexts in making recommendations in situations of racial, ethnic or religious discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to a nationality. 

Further, in recent years there has been increased mobilisation by minority groups to claim their citizenship rights, including through strategic litigation by groups in Bangladesh, Kenya and the Dominican Republic, as well as paralegal work in countries such as Kenya.

[last updated January 2024]

Cover image by Greg Constantine