The State Formation episode by guest speakers Shahd Qannam and Areej Al-Shammiry, explores the roots of the idea of “nation” and the process of state formation. Statelessness dates back to the emergence of nation states and state formation in general. Some examples of where this has occurred is in Kuwait with the Bidoon community, and in Israel with the Palestinians. The guest speakers discuss the idea of borders and its artificial role in “protecting” nation states.Shahd Qannam is a Palestin...

Our introductory episode by guest speaker Amal de Chickera, discusses the overall aim of the podcast, the themes that will be covered, the structure of the podcast, and a brief historical background on the issue. The episode highlights the different themes that will be covered throughout the podcast series including history of colonialism, patriarchy, state formation, xenophobia and racism, and digital ID and documentation.Amal de Chickera is a co-founder and one of the Co-Directors of the In...

The concluding episode featuring Amal de Chickera, Areej Al-Shammiry, Catherine Harrington, Subim Mulmi, Shahd Qannam, is a three-part roundtable with conversations across the different themes, allowing the guest speakers to speak more holistically about the issues at hand & lessons learned.The episode is divided into 3 main parts:1. Relationship between statelessness and discrimination 2. Emerging trends and debates around statelessness 3.&...

The Colonialism episode by guest speakers Joshua Castellino and Subin Mulmi, discusses the history and impact of colonialism and its role in creating statelessness. The causes of statelessness that exist today were habituated by the colonial powers to their own benefits with the forced displacement of the colonised leaving thousands of people stateless. Joshua Castellino is the Executive Director of Minority Rights Group International and Professor of International and Comparative Law at Derb...

The Digital ID episode featuring Laura Bingham and Mustafa Mahmoud, looks at digitalisation of IDs and the impact this has on statelessness. Colonial powers introduced the idea of documentation to determine who “belongs” to the state and who does not. IDs are another form of discrimination against stateless people that first started with colonialism and this part of the podcast unleashes the history of documentation, politics of digital ID and the discrimination against stateless individuals ...

The Racism & Xenophobia episode featuring Tendayi Achiume and Jaivet Ealom, explores the relationship between institutional racism, xenophobia and statelessness. Many states, whether through their politics or laws, discriminate against minorities, denying them equal access to citizenship. This discrimination against the stateless is rooted in the idea of “outsider”. Colonialism created a system of hierarchy where certain groups think of themselves as superior and more deserving of life. A...

Our Patriarchy episode by guest speakers Catherine Harrington and Patricia Low, discusses the patriarchy and its role in creating statelessness. The episode will analyse deep-seated patriarchy, how it views and constructs identity, political participation and gendered roles, and how this creates layers of discrimination against women—women are often seen in opposition to men and their rights, and lives, are at the discretion of men. Catherine Harrington is the Campaign Manager for the G...

This episode of the What’s Best for Children’s Nationality Podcast considers stories of childhood statelessness in South Africa. An interview with Liesl Muller from Lawyers for Human Rights puts strategic litigation and international advocacy at the centre of ensuring safeguards in the nationality law in order to prevent such childhood statelessness. These good practices are also reflected upon by European Roma Rights Centre’s Adam Weiss in the context of antigypsyism in the processes around ...

What are the causes of childhood statelessness? And what would be the consequences? This first episode of the What’s Best for Children’s Nationality podcast covers the basics of the causes and consequences of childhood statelessness, the obligations under the CRC and some reflections on opportunities, challenges and good practices. The episode includes an extended interview with Benyam Dawit Mezmur, a leading international expert on and proponent of the child’s right to nationality, and a mem...

The concluding episode reflects on the challenges, successes and cases presented throughout the series, and offers some conclusions while also setting a possible agenda to increase positive change. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion has partnered with UNICEF to produce this six-part podcast series, ‘What’s Best for Children’s Nationality’. The series aims to build knowledge around childhood statelessness and the right of every child to a nationality by exploring good practices in ...

Episode five of the What’s Best for Children’s Nationality Podcast series zooms back out from the specific country contexts to explore the joint, global UNHCR-UNICEF initiative: the Coalition on Every Child’s Right to a Nationality. UNHCR’s Radha Govil and UNICEF’s Kerry Neal highlight their organisation’s involvement in this Coalition and some real-life problems of childhood Statelessness that they’ve come across through their work. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion has part...

In this edition of the What’s Best for Children’s Nationality Podcast we zoom in on Nepal, where gender discrimination in nationality laws creates statelessness among children. Interviews with Nepali activists Deepti Gurung and her daughter Neha demonstrate how community mobilisation, education and awareness raising are being used to promote equal nationality rights and work towards social and legislative change. With Catherine Harrington from the Global Campaign on Equal Nationality Rights e...

Episode 3 of the What’s Best for Children’s Nationality Podcast explores the situation in Lebanon, where childhood statelessness exists in a setting of forced migration and is linked with obstacles to the registration of births among children of refugees from Syria – leaving them without proof of their ties to their country of origin and at a risk of ending up without a nationality. Martin Clutterbuck from the Norwegian Refugee Council in this podcast talks about how legal counselling and ass...

ISI has partnered with UNICEF to produce this six-part podcast series, ‘What’s Best for Children’s Nationality’, to build knowledge around childhood statelessness and the right of every child to a nationality by exploring good practices in the field with examples, challenges and successes from real-life settings. A child without a nationality can struggle to obtain a birth certificate, access schooling, see a doctor and participate fully in society. To be stateless is to be an outsider,...

In this, the final episode of the Paperless People Podcast, we reflect on what we have learned from the series and try to explore possible solutions to the issues raised. After highlighting the risks of SDG Goal 16.9, in this episode we hear from a range of experts on how we can help to make people visible, without leaving them excluded, and as more people gain a ‘legal identity’, we discuss ideas on how to ensure those left without are able to benefit from development processes. ...

In this edition of the Paperless People Podcast we follow the stories of two people from the Dominican Republic, exploring how domestic law and policy is perpetuating their legal invisibility and discrimination against them. Through these stories and expert analysis, we explore how the UN Sustainable Development Goals may struggle to achieve what they set out to do if the approach to implementation and monitoring does not account for structural discrimination that is too often leaving certain...

In this edition of the Paperless People Podcast we follow the stories of two families in Assam, India, exploring how new cases of statelessness and legal invisibility are being created in this region on a worrying scale. Through these stories and expert analysis, we explore how the UN Sustainable Development Goals may struggle to achieve what they set out to do if the approach to implementation and monitoring does not account for structural discrimination that is too often leaving certain peo...

In this edition of the Paperless People Podcast we follow the stories of two Roma families, exploring how policies in Serbia are perpetuating their legal invisibility. Through these stories and expert analysis, we explore how the UN Sustainable Development Goals may struggle to achieve what they set out to do if the approach to implementation and monitoring does not account for structural discrimination that is too often leaving certain people behind: in this case the Roma in Serbia. Th...

Having explored the challenges surrounding statelessness in our first episode, in this second Paperless People Podcast we explore what the UN Sustainable Development Goals are, or are not, doing to address those challenges. Through interviews with experts, we explore how the well-intentioned target of providing “legal identity” to people around the world has the potential to do harm as well as good - and could leave more people stateless as well as stateless people even more marginalized.&nbs...

What is statelessness? What does it mean to be stateless? And why should we care? In this first episode of The Paperless People Podcast, we will be exploring these questions and more. We talk to human rights activists and experts working to try and address the global and worrying issue of statelessness. This podcast series, produced by the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, with the support of the Knowledge Platform for Security and the Rule of Law (Knowledge Manageme...