statsløst

Statsløst, or stateless in Danish, refers to a person who is not considered a national by any state under its laws. A stateless person lacks citizenship in any country, which can create gaps in rights and protections that are normally tied to nationality. Statelessness is not the same as being without any legal status or as being a refugee, though a person can be both stateless and a refugee.

Statelessness arises from a variety of causes. These include gaps in nationality laws, discrimination in access to nationality, birth to stateless parents, state succession, loss or renunciation of nationality without acquiring another, and administrative errors or failures to register births. Some individuals experience de facto statelessness when their citizenship effectively does not protect them in practice, even if a nationality exists on paper.

International law provides a framework to address statelessness. The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines who is stateless and sets baseline rights for such individuals, while the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness seeks to prevent and reduce statelessness and to facilitate naturalization in certain cases. Not all states are parties to these treaties, and protections vary by country. In practice, stateless people may have limited access to travel documents, education, employment, and healthcare, and they often face barriers to social and political participation.

Global estimates of stateless populations vary and are uncertain, with numbers reported in the hundreds of thousands up to several millions. Data collection is challenging, and many stateless people remain undocumented. Policy responses focus on birth registration, preventing loss of nationality, and offering lawful paths to nationality or regular residence.

See also: nationality law, statelessness, refugee status.