Human rights and protection of non-citizens: Whither universality and indivisibility of rights?

This article explores the current status of the universality and indivisibility of the rights of non-citizens. It shows that non-citizens as human beings are entitled to fundamental human rights, but it also reviews the various categories of non-citizens, the rights extended to them via international agreements and domestic tribunals, and the many problems they encounter, despite these apparent protections. Many of the article's observations and insights are based on reports of international human rights bodies and thematic special rapporteurs who have investigated the plight of non-citizens in considerable detail. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for ways that individual States, as well as the entire global community, might better protect the rights and interests of non-citizens around the world, thus making those rights increasingly universal and indivisible.