National (In)Security: Constructing the Nation-State through Statelessness and the Non-Provision of Rights

This thesis examines the unacceptable situation where human rights are made subject to the nation-state's need for a high degree of internal cohesion, which it achieves through Othering and the exclusion of groups deemed incompatible with the unified national identity. This situation is the result of a weak international legal framework, which proclaims the universality of human rights, but depends upon nation-states for their provision. The effect of this is felt most profoundly by stateless persons, who lack citizenship and its attendant rights, and thus constitute the nation-state's paradigmatic Other.