Statelessness in the Inter-American system for the protection of human rights and its relation with a Latin American cooperative constitutional state

Abstract

The article presents considerations on the phenomenon of statelessness based on the analysis of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights in the development of the theme of nationality and the protection of stateless persons. This analysis starts from the performance of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the application and interpretation of the American Convention, as active mechanisms for the construction of a Latin American Cooperative Constitutional State. The research seeks to show that the legal panorama regarding nationality and the confrontation of statelessness in the inter-American system corroborate Peter Häberle's theory of the Cooperative Constitutional State. Therefore, the study was based on a qualitative and jurisprudential analysis of the cases judged by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the doctrinal understanding about the development of the theory of the Cooperative Constitutional State and documents about the norms of International Human Rights Law related to the protection of the stateless. The study will critically demonstrate that, despite the normative set regarding the right to nationality and adherence to international conventions and treaties, influenced by the understanding of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the subject, directing States towards a Cooperative Constitutionalism, the lack of internal openness in countries and rigid ideas of sovereignty, impede this development and undermine the guarantee of the right to nationality.