Here are some of my thoughts on the article.
Though individuals have purposefully become stateless in some cases -- American-born Garry Davis famously renounced his citizenship to highlight his belief that erasing nation-states would eliminate wars -- most people in that circumstance aren't given a choice.
A quick look in Wikipedia would find at least two ex-Americans who still living and have chosen to become Stateless. Myself being one, and the other being Mike Gogulski. One could only guess that there are others who have chosen that path to a quiet, peaceful life.
"Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care, or legal employment," UNHCR said in an openletter published by the Guardian on Monday. "It can mean a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects, or hope. Statelessness is inhumane."
I cannot possibly disagree with this. Except, that I don't see Statelessness as inhumane. As one has the right to chose their Citizenship, "none" should be an appropriate choice. However, by choice or involuntary action, all people, with or without nationality should be treated with respect.
The implications are enormous. If you don't have the recognition from a state that you are a national then you very often have no rights to the most fundamental services -- for example, putting your kids in school, the right to a job, the right to a hospital. What stateless people often tell us is it feels like they don't exist. The problem is that they have to somehow struggle to survive. The other problem is the legacy of it. It's self-perpetuating, so generations after generations of people are stateless and they can't get themselves out of it.
I believe the identity of the person, the feeling of self-esteem and the value of a person comes from the person, not from the State. In my case, the State only left me feeling belittled and of no value. It is only outside the State that one can become who they are. Through the exercise of self-expression, travel, religion, association with others, can we find ourselves and our true value in life; ultimately to find peace within ourselves. When we are bound by the State all of those actions become limited and we are held back as human beings.
There are some 7 billion individuals on this planet. And, I use specifically the world "individual". Each one of us is unique. When 7 billion people are forced to submit to one of two hundred or so States, there are bound to be a large number who don't fit in, are outcasts, are held back. People who are repressed and unable to experience their full value as a human being, whether they are a citizen of some country or not.
All of the issues to Statelessness simply vanish when a government respects all the people within its realm.
Do you believe that everyone has the right to be a citizen of a state?
Absolutely. Everyone has the right to belong, and the problem is that 10 million people right now are in a situation where they have absolutely no legal identity, no passport, no ability to take part in elections, and very few have the opportunity to get an education -- so it can be considered in a way as not only an injustice, but for stateless people they feel like it's a form of torture.
What about the right not to belong? I don't want to be a member of a club that I believe disrespects me. Fortunately, I was able to come to a place in my life where I could leave that "club." Where I could live without a forced allegiance to something I didn't believe in. I think it is sad to suggest that anyone should be forced to become a member of a club in order to be respected as a human being. The injustice and torture is the failure of States to respect the human rights of everyone.
Do you find any need to differentiate between people who are forced to be stateless, and those who choose to renounce their state for political reasons?
Nobody we have ever met who is stateless wishes to be living in this condition. They feel extremely deprived and they feel discriminated against, and very often it's something that could be rectified so easily.
I
will not suggest that I don't foresee the possibility of various various
hassles or being discriminated against for my choice to become
Stateless. However, I felt that as a United States Citizen I was living
in a lie. I felt discriminated against when I chose to exercise my
rights. When I traveled around the world, I felt labeled as something
that I wasn't. I felt ashamed when people asked me to answer for the
actions of my "leaders". I felt deprived of true liberty.
Though
as a Stateless ex-American, I may be more bureaucratically hindered in
my exercise of rights, I can be at peace with myself and exercise the
true liberty of being free; without any immoral fidelities to an abusive
political system.
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