“One day, I was standing between the borders, and could not get into either country. It was the most unforgettable experience in my life! I could not enter the State where I had been; also I couldn’t get into the State where I was born, raised and lived! Where do I belong? I still cannot forget the strong feeling of loss I experienced at the airport.”
Chen, who was formerly stateless
INTRODUCTION
Statelessness is a phenomenon as old as the concept of nationality. Nationality is a legal relationship between an individual and a state that “confers mutual rights and duties on both” and has been called “man’s basic right, for it is nothing less than the right to have rights.” Statelessness is a situation in which a person “is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law” (Statelessness Convention, Article 1). In other words, statelessness refers to a
