Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, in association with the Weeramantry Centre, launched a year-long lecture series on ‘Alternative Approaches to International Law’ in October 2020.
In December the talk was on ‘Statelessness Arising out of Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality and Persecution: An Irrefutable Link’. The speaker was Prof. Dr. Sanoj Rajan, Distinguished Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China.
The links between making an entire population stateless and crimes of persecution against humanity have often been overlooked. The talk explored the nexus between the two issues, arguing that the arbitrary deprivation of nationality to a large population is itself a crime of persecution against humanity and is illegal under international law. The talk began with an examination of the nature of statelessness before moving on to a discussion on how statelessness arising out of arbitrary deprivation of nationality invariably leads to crimes against humanity. The speaker ended the talk with a suggestion to amend the definition of crimes of persecution against humanity under the Rome Statute to act as a deterrent for future violations.
