This project started in May 2008 with the aim of strengthening the protection of stateless persons who are in any kind of detention or imprisonment due at least in part to their being stateless, and to ensure they can exercise their right to be free from arbitrary detention without discrimination. The project pursues two interrelated objectives: 

1. To document the detention, or other forms of physical restriction of stateless persons (de jure and de facto) around the world; 

2. To use this information to develop detailed legal analysis as a basis for international and national advocacy against the arbitrary detention of stateless people. 

Statelessness is a phenomenon that occurs when a person has no effective nationality. There are two categories of stateless person:

1. The legally (de jure) stateless, who have no legal nationality, and are specifically protected in international law; and

2. The practically (de facto) stateless, who have a legal nationality which is ineffective.

The project is global in scope, and addresses the detention and protection needs of both de jure and de facto stateless persons, given that a strict distinction between the two categories is difficult to be made in practice, and that individuals from each category have similar protection needs. Research undertaken highlights individual cases, with particular focus on individuals who face indefinite detention, and provides in-depth analysis of the situation several case study countries.

In July 2010, ERT published a comprehensive 260-page report entitled Unravelling Anomaly: Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of Stateless Persons, which provides a detailed analysis and critique of the international protection framework and the treatment of stateless persons in different countries, makes recommendations for their protection, and forms the basis for ERT’s ongoing advocacy work. There have been several other ERT publications under this project as well.

There are four separate but inter-related strands to ERT’s advocacy strategy.

At a country level: ERT is carrying out advocacy in the UK and the USA. In the UK, ERT is working in close partnership with organisations including the Detention Forum, London Detainee Support Group and Asylum Aid to lobby for the implementation of a statelessness determination procedure and a review of the immigration detention system. In the USA, ERT in partnership with the Law Clinic of the School of Law at the American University of Washington, is focussing on engaging relevant US civil society organisations to prioritise statelessness in their work and conducting advocacy to promote the O’Leahy draft Refugee Protection Bill which has a section on the identification and protection of stateless persons.

At the global level: ERT is engaging with key human rights treaty bodies and the UNHCR as part of an ongoing effort to support the UNHCR with its statelessness mandate and lobby treaty bodies to further  prioritise the issue of statelessness in their work. 

At a policy level: ERT is facilitating the drafting of guidelines on the detention of stateless persons. These guidelines will draw from existing international legal norms and jurisprudence in order to highlight legal obligations to be followed, and promote best practice to be replicated, with regard to the detention of stateless persons. 

As a resource: ERT is developing various tools which can be utilised by NGOs around the world to enable them to provide better services and greater protection to stateless persons. 

To read "Unravelling Anomaly: Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of Stateless Persons", click here. 

To read "From Mariel Cubans to Guantanamo Detainees: Stateless Persons Detained under U.S. Authority", click here.

To read "Trapped in a Cycle of Flight: Stateless Rohingya in Malaysia", click here.

To read an article on stateless persons in the US military base in Guantanamo, click here.

To read an ERT letter of concern regarding the treatment of stateless Rohingya by Thai authorities, click here.

To read the ERT Legal Working Paper: The Protection of Stateless Persons in Detention under International Law, click here.

To read the ERT Research Working Paper: The Protection of Stateless Persons in Detention, click here.