Stateless Nations and a Minority Ethnic Sets of People - Essay Example

Stateless Nations According to UNHCR Stateless nations refer to minority ethnic sets of people in any nation state who are entitled to their own state. In regards to this it articulates irredentism, In that the individuals are stateless because they lack complete legal nationality to the state. Hence, fellows of stateless ethnic groups may either be denied citizenship to a state or form a subgroup of citizens of the country. Stateless nations exist in two main categories, these include people who form a native population of a region within a larger state for example Uygbur community in the Autonomous region of Xinjiang Uyghur which is located in the People’s Republic of China. Besides, the groups can be dispersed across different of states for instance, the Kurdish community in Iran, Iraq. Syria, Armenia and Turkey. In addition, the Romani community can are also a special case of stateless nation because distributed in various countries but have no clear homeland since they are nomads. In some instances, stateless nations can include people who are fighting for independence from a larger state. Often, the supporters of secession perceive the nation state as an Empire which exercises Imperialism. Therefore, the groups oppose the principle of a multi-ethnic state and advocate for sovereignty of ethnic groups. Examples of such nations are Scotland, Hawaii, Chiapas, Tibet and Chechnya. However, the most stateless nations are Kurds found in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Basques in France and Spain. Stateless nations differ from nation states in several ways. They lack territory, Sovereignty, diplomatic recognition and clear population size. Therefore, the work highlights characteristics of stateless nations in reference to the Kurdish culture. First, members of Stateless nations possess different religious views and practice with the nation state. This is evident among the Kurds because despite of their shared Islam faith, the Kurds are culturally and ethnically dissimilar from their Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish neighbors. Most Kurds live small farming villages in the countryside. They are primarily Sunni Muslim, with about 75% of Kurds following the sect. Though, people in southern regions of Iranian province and Kurdistan are typically Shi'ite. However, the conflict between Shi'ite and Sunni is never prevalent. Secondly, the members of stateless nations speak different languages. For instance, Kurdish language is linked to Persian, though local vernaculars greatly differ to the extent that an individual Kurdish descent may not comprehend his counterpart from a different region. Some parts of Kurdistan use the Latin, Arabi and cyrillic alphabet to write in Kurdish, this further confuses communication. Sorani is a dialect which is used widely. It is a language used in publications and radio broadcasts. In addition, Statelessness is precarious, undesirable, and also dangerous condition. Regardless of many problems associated with it, the issue of statelessness is hardly addressed in theory or public discourse. The statelessness is linked to legal challenges which include, protecting the right of every human being to have a nationality. Further, the stateless are considered politically voiceless. In order to address the problem, most organizations need to prioritize the issue at institutional level. Guidelines on statelessness exist, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights highlights that all people are entitled to the right to a nationality. Nevertheless, the global community still have approximately eleven million stateless persons. These people usually have lives of uncertainty, they are unable to effectively participate in any nation’s politics as well as seek protection of their basic rights from any state. The Condition of Statelessness also associated with a nature of unfriendly political and human circumstance. Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) who work with stateless people highlight humanitarian and political sides of the condition because it promotes social and political discrimination and exclusion. The condition further attracts vast challenges in human beings life or at least until one gets citizenship. Some problems are dominant to the dilemma of stateless people.The first of these problems is lack of fulfilment of human rights. Even though there is a dialogueof universal human rights, various scholars highlight that in fact there exists a strong correlation between rights fulfillment and belonging to a state. Humanitarian Organizations address this in empirical studies which outline a lack of formal rights protection by a state to make people in this condition so vulnerable to violation of rights. It is evident that stateless people lack access to most political and civil rights. Such entail equality, recognition as a person before the law; liberty of residence and movement, nationality and birth registration and development processes such as voting. On general terms of public service and equality, the ways in which these rights remain unaddressed for stateless people are well documented. Moreover, it is not only political and civil rights, but also economic, cultural and social rights often remain unfulfilled for stateless persons. These comprise the right to right to work, self-determination and gain of adequate skills through training. In other instances, the right to good standard of living, social security; the right to education and the right to a high standard of physical and mental health; right to take part in cultural life and education is also overlooked. Although it is not well elaborated, it is common for stateless individuals to be denied these rights by the nation state they live in, mostly the rights to work and obtain an education. The costs of these rights violations for the achievement of any version of better lives are clear. Alongside rights violations, stateless people also experience challenges of recognition and identity formation. Stateless people totally lack any legal individuality. The UNHCR observe a legal definition of the condition based on the significance legal and national identity. According to UNHCR definition a stateless person is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. This is contained in 1954 Convention, Article 1.1. Therefore, this explains that stateless people are persons who slip through legal regulations. Through this, the UNCHR preserve the close connections between human rights protection and national identity. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates the faults of the understandings of statelessness. While the NGOs and UNHCR perform valuable work addressing issues of statelessness on the political and humanitarian agenda. To correct humanitarian and legal inequalities of the stateless people, questions exist about worlds understanding of statelessness. The analysis of centrality of citizenship and the nation-state in the global community perspective of identity, states should change their inherent biases concerning the thinking about political identity. Besides, seek to address underlying issues of formal citizenship. This is achievable by addressing a range of conditions apart from statelessness. Every nation has its culture, it can be the height of bigotry to claim that a particular nation lack culture. This was the explanation for slavery, to claim that Africans lacked culture and therefore, they needed civilization. It is a fact they possessed fantastic and rich culture. In modern day, people argue that a country like the USA lack culture since modern society eroded it. A claim which is false. Such individuals should think of country music, blues music and rock music. Besides, they should consider the works of Steinbeck, Vonnegut Salinger and the art of Warhol Hopper and Pollack to justify that USA has rich culture. Reference "Stateless People." UNHCR News. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. . Read More