International law protects the right of every child to acquire a nationality.
Yet, childhood statelessness pervades all regions of the world.
At least a third of the 15 million people who face life without a nationality today, are children.
And, every ten minutes, another child is born stateless.
The disconnect between the recognition of nationality as a fundamental child right and the reality of childhood statelessness presents a massive challenge, but also opens up a wealth of opportunities. Childhood statelessness is entirely preventable. It is never in a child's best interests to be stateless, nor is it ever a child's "fault" if they are left without nationality. We are proud to devote this edition of our flagship report, The World's Stateless 2017, to exploring the urgency of and opportunities for addressing childhood statelessness. Over 50 experts and organisations have contributed material - essays, interviews, photographs and more. Collectively, they deal with a multitude of different dimensions of childhood statelessness, with chapters exploring the right to a nationality, challenges in the context of migration and displacement, the significance of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the mechanics of safeguards against statelessness for children, and litigation, legal assistance and other forms of moblisation as strategies to tackle childhood statelessness. As with every edition of The World's Stateless, this publication also offers a more general overview of the state of statelessness globally in 2017.
The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion is an independent non-profit organisation, committed to ending statelessness and disenfranchisement through the promotion of human rights, participation and inclusion. For more information about our work, please visit www.institutesi.org.