Identifiable Challenges as Global Complexities

Abstract

Discourses on globalization and violence often fall short on understanding the gender aspects of different forms of violence. This is particularly the case for stateless women and girls, faced with the existing institutionalized systems of social and legal protection which do not account for them, making them almost invisible. Subsequently, this contribution claims that the assessment of vulnerability, and likely responses, are linked to power and identity at the global levels. Furthermore, such responses are shaped by the structure of agency and associated power structures in society. Unequal power structures are likely to lead to unequal patterns of neglect, or perverse responses that protect entrenched interests aligned with existing structures of identity or influence. In this way, the “vulnerability of stateless identity” can itself be a source of heightened anxiety and fear.