Statelessness and The Law: A Comparative Analysis of International and Afghan Legal Frameworks

According to legal principles, every individual must possess a nationality in order to normally enjoy their rights. Despite this requirement, some persons remain without the nationality of any state; such individuals are referred to as stateless persons. Stateless persons are deprived of their social rights, political rights, and the political protection of states. Discrimination, forced migration, wars, conflicts of laws, punishments, state dissolution and union, among others, are considered major causes of statelessness. In addition to eliminating these factors, applying the principle of compulsory nationality, adopting a mixed system of nationality acquisition, encouraging stateless persons, granting nationality through residence, marriage, guardianship, transferring nationality from parents to children, eliminating discrimination in nationality provisions, acquisition of nationality through marriage, granting nationality to refugees, adoption, preservation of former nationality, and re-acquisition of previous nationality can reduce the level of statelessness worldwide. The objectives of this research are to clarify the causes of statelessness and the means of its elimination from the perspective of private international law and Afghanistan’s legal system. This article argues that while Afghanistan has made strides in reporting zero statelessness, its rigid adherence to the principle of blood (jus sanguinis) creates a potential legal friction with international standards that prioritize territoriality (jus soli) as the primary remedy for statelessness. This study is library-based and descriptive, employing explanatory, comparative, and analytical methods. The findings indicate that international legal instruments recognize the territorial principle as the primary solution to statelessness, while other approaches are considered secondary. In contrast, Afghanistan’s legal system adopts the blood principle as the primary solution and other approaches as secondary. Compared to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the 1997 European Convention on Nationality provides explicit responsibilities and clear solutions to prevent statelessness. The selection of appropriate keywords can significantly impact the discoverability of the research, so consider terms that potential readers might use when searching for work in the area. Afghanistan reported zero stateless persons to UNHCR since 2019.