Towards an ethical approach to statelessness and the right to have rights
| dc.contributor.advisor | Van Marle, Karin | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Vetrik, Casey Megan | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-06-11T07:24:22Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-06-11T07:24:22Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | en_ZA |
| dc.description | Thesis (LL.D. (Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law))--University of the Free State, 2023 | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | In an increasingly globalized world, where nation-states are crucial components that form the structure of the global community, statelessness represents a significant failure within international society.¹ Where, within a world made up of states, does a stateless person fit? Such people do not seem to “belong” anywhere and in the eyes of the law, often find themselves invisible, as though they do not exist.² Although there have been admirable attempts by the international community, along with certain individual nation-states, to respond to the issue of statelessness through various campaigns as well as the enactment of numerous international/national laws, statelessness and the problems that arise because of it, still subsists. From the outset, it is noted that the primary focus of the international approach to statelessness has revolved around the concept of legal nationality, specifically by encouraging nation-states to ensure that their national laws are in line with the international laws that aim to uphold the tenet that everyone has the right to a nationality. While there is no doubt that some countries still have inadequate national laws that cause statelessness,³ there are also countries whose national laws appear more than sufficient (and who often pride themselves on concepts such as human rights, equality and diversity) who despite this, still have a prominent stateless population within their territory and/or still have new cases of statelessness occurring.⁴ Similarly, the humanitarian response, with its campaigns and promises to end statelessness have also not completely succeeded in its goals. The continued existence of statelessness thus calls into question the efficiency of both the international legal approach as well as the humanitarian response to statelessness to date and begs the question: Why, despite comprehensive international (and national) laws, does statelessness still exist? The severity of the consequences of statelessness is both profound and widespread and as such, the failure to eradicate it is of great concern.⁵ There is thus a need to investigate possibilities beyond the dominant approach taken to date. As statelessness and the issues that accompany it continue to cycle through generations, a need arises to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the current approach. It follows that there is a resultant uncertainty surrounding whether the issue of statelessness can ever be fully resolved by merely formulating more laws, treaties and recommendations, or whether there is something else that is inherently missing from the current approach. It is in this context that Hannah Arendt’s notion of a “right to have rights”⁶ can provide an invaluable starting point to analyse the intricate subtleties that the current approach does not sufficiently address. Referencing the international initiatives after WW2 to draft a universal declaration regarding human rights (which ultimately led to the UDHR that we know today), Arendt foresaw that such attempts still exist only within the limits of state-centric international law and thus fail to provide adequate security for a right to have rights.⁷ Considering the significant and widespread societal costs associated with it,⁸ the legal, practical and ethical imperative to eliminate statelessness is not in dispute. However, whilst the dominant approach has utilised an array of legal techniques, practicalities surrounding issues such as belonging, marginalisation and ethical considerations have not been as widely explored. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/12550 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Towards an ethical approach to statelessness and the right to have rights | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis |