#alternate alternate alternate ISIS Cases Raise a Question: What Does It Mean to Be Stateless? (BUTTON) -- Middle East|ISIS Cases Raise a Question: What Does It Mean to Be Stateless? https://nyti.ms/2GI4ER4 * -- Continue reading the main story ISIS Cases Raise a Question: What Does It Mean to Be Stateless? * -- The government says it is acting to protect the British public first. But a lawyer for Ms. Begum, who recently gave birth to a baby boy, said the move would render the British-born woman stateless. The dilemma of what to do with citizens of Western countries who threw in their lot with the Islamic State before it was largely ousted from Syria has set off a debate over citizenship and the statelessness that might result from stripping some of them of their nationality. -- powerful message to those who turn against their own countries, legal experts warn of long-term problems if the stranded Islamic State members end up stateless. “This is leaving people homeless without protection, and destroying any -- adviser for Human Rights Watch. What is statelessness and how widespread is it? The United Nations refugee agency defines a stateless person as someone who does not have the nationality of any country. Some are born stateless because of gaps in nationality laws — in effect, they fall through the cracks. Others become stateless as new nations emerge, or borders change. And some have their nationality revoked. It can mean a life in perpetual limbo, said David Baluarte, an expert on statelessness and professor of law at Washington and Lee University. “They are constantly living in the shadows, potentially sought out by -- Bangladesh last year.Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times At least 10 million people globally are stateless, and most — more than 75 percent — are part of minority groups in the countries where they reside. -- people,” Mr. Baluarte said. The case against statelessness. Since the end of World War II — in part as a response to Nazi Germany’s stripping Jews of their citizenship before rounding them up and shipping them to ghettos and then concentration camps — international law has codified protections for the stateless. Two United Nations Conventions on Statelessness, in 1954 and 1961, laid out basic principles of human rights for those without a nationality. They also sought to limit the deprivation of nationality in cases when it would make someone stateless. Some 61 nations, including Britain, are signatories. “That legal protection exists, so states that are stripping people of nationality and leaving them stateless are violating that law,” Mr. Baluarte said. -- The United States has its own precedent. In 1958, the Supreme Court ruled in Trop v. Dulles that it was unconstitutional to revoke citizenship and make someone stateless as a punishment for a crime. “Citizenship is not a license that expires upon misbehavior,” the -- “Civilized nations after World War II saw how abusive the stripping of citizenship that would leave someone stateless was,” Mr. Baluarte said. “But we are bringing ourselves back to a place where we have forgotten how desperate the situation of statelessness was. And having this new wave of politically motivated expatriation is really troubling.” -- The Home Office said in a statement that Mr. Javid has the power to deprive people of their British citizenship where it would not render them stateless. The office did not comment on Ms. Begum’s case specifically, but the British authorities are reported to believe they can act against her because her mother has a passport from Bangladesh. -- However, according to Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer for Ms. Begum’s family, the young woman is not a citizen of Bangladesh, and that country has said she will not be allowed entry. That would render her stateless. Mr. Clive of Human Rights Watch said taking away citizenship “on the -- Hackensack, N.J., in 1994. If Ms. Muthana joins the ranks of the stateless, said Mr. Baldwin, the Human Rights Watch legal adviser, that would pose far more risk than bringing her home and investigating her involvement with the Islamic State. “If they are stateless, where are they going to go?” he said. “No country has any obligation to take them. That is not the recipe for a stable government. It’s likely the recipe for more radicalization.”