The management strategy for stateless persons in Southeast Asia
Keywords:
Stateless person, Human rights, Southeast AsiaAbstract
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has affirmed the fundamental rights of every person without taking nationality into consideration. However, significant populations world-wide are unable to exercise these rights. Thus, citizenship is a prerequisite to gaining one’s rights within the state. When individuals are unable to register or are rejected from registering as legal persons in the civil registration of any state on earth, this creates problems in terms of individual status certification and renders certain rights to be inaccessible.
Although the Asian Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the cooperation of each region have made efforts to help solve statelessness problems in this region, the number of stateless persons in Southeast Asia still makes up roughly 40 percent of total stateless persons world-wide. This issue reflects a considerable gap between the written law and its application.
The objective of this article is to present the situation of stateless persons in Southeast Asia, analyze the causes of the problem and suggest strategic solutions for statelessness by using a conceptual framework relating to fundamental human rights and the stability of regions.
References
Center Intelligence Agency. 2016. Refugees And Internally Displaced Persons. Accessed March 3, 2018. www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/fi elds/print_2194.html.
Laungaramsri, Pinkaew. 2013. “Asean and Stateless Persons.” Accessed March, 2 2018. www.tobethai.org/newsite/content/อาเซียนกับคนไร้รัฐปิ่นแก้ว-เหลืองอร่ามศรี.
National Human Rights Commission. 2016. “Situations of Stateless Persons in Asean and the Thai Government’s Implementations.” Accessed February 14, 2018. www.nhrc.or.th/NHRCT-Work/Statements-PressReleases-Open-Letters/Press-Releases/ข่าวแจก-กสม-เตือนใจ-ร่วมแลก เปลี่ยนและประเมินสถานกา.aspx.
NHRCT and UNHCR (National Human Rights Commission of Th ailand and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). 2010. “Regional Expert Roundtable on Good Practices for the Identifi cation.” Report of Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and the Protection of Stateless Persons in South East Asia. October 28-29 2010 Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok, Th ailand Accessed March 2, 2018 www.refworld.org/ pdfi d/4d6e09932.pdf.
Nootsara, Bongkot, and Petchmeesorn Sriprapha. n.d. “Gap in the Law and Rohingya’s Hope in Th ailand.” Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP) Mahidol University. Accessed February, 15 2018. www. equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Thailand%27s%20legal%20 study.pdf.
Tolman, Alanna. 2016. “Brunei’s stateless left in a state of confusion.” Accessed March 3, 2018. http://www.newmandala.org/bruneis-statelessleft-in-a-state-of-confusion/.
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). 2008. “Statelessness: An Analytical Framework for Prevention, Reduction and Protection.” Accessed February14, 2018. www.refworld.org/pdfi d/49a28afb2. pdf.
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). 2010. “Good Practices Addressing Statelessness in South East Asia.” Report of the Regional Expert Roundtable on Good Practices for the Identifi cation, Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and the Protection of Stateless Persons in South East Asia, Bangkok, October 28 – 29, 2010, Bangkok. Accessed February 14, 2018. www.refworld.org/pdfi d/4d6e0a792.pdf
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). 2016. “UNHCR lauds the Philippines, Indonesia, Th ailand Among ASEAN States to Address Statelessness.” Accessed March, 2 2018. www.unhcr.org/ ph/11073-unhcr-lauds-philippines-indonesia-thailand-among-aseanstates-address-statelessness.html.
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). 2017. “Statelessness and the Rohingya.” Accessed March 2, 2018. www.refworld.org/ topic,50ff bce524d, 50ff bce5268,5a05b4664,0-MMR.html.
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). n.d. “Ending Statelessness in Malaysia.” Accessed March 1, 2018. www.unhcr.org/ ending-statelessness-in-malaysia.html.
United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. 2013 “Brunei 2013 Human Rights Report.” Accessed March 1, 2018. www.state.gov/documents/organization/220391.pdf.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Published articles are under the copyright of the Instiute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University. Partially or totally publication of an article elsewhere is possible only after the consent from the editors.
