party to the 1954 Convention can fulfil its protection obligations under this international treaty.9 Leading experts in the field endorse this position.10 In addition, the lack of effective determination mechanisms may have seriously harmful effects for both the populations concerned (prolonged unlawful detention, destitution, social marginalisation, etc.) and the state itself (security risks, social tensions, etc.). In recent years, a growing number of countries have established a determination and protection framework which is specific to stateless persons. In these national legal frameworks, statelessness is explicitly defined as a protection ground per se and individuals are able to claim protection based merely on their statelessness. If this fact is objectively confirmed through a statelessness determination procedure, they will receive a legal status solely on this ground. These systems may be referred to as statelessness-specific protection regimes. Currently, a dozen states worldwide provide a right of residence to stateless persons, on the basis of their statelessness. Most of these countries are in Europe. The following table lists the relevant countries as well as the year of the creation of the national statelessness-specific protection regime. It also indicates three potential ways of classifying statelessness-specific protection regimes:1112131415161718 1920 9 UNHCR Statelessness Guidelines 2, Para 1 10 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Statelessness Determination Procedures and the Status of Stateless Persons (“Geneva Conclusions”), December 2010, Para 1 11 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which – together with numerous other factors – triggered an unprecedented increase of awareness about statelessness and related international obligations within the international community. 12 Established by: Royal Decree No. 865/2001 of 20 July approving the Regulation on the Recognition of the Stateless Status, 20 July 2001 13 Established by: Act on Stateless Persons, 2 March 2004 14 Established by: Act II of 2007 on the Admission and Right of Residence of Third-Country Nationals, 1 July 2007 15 Established by: Act on the Amendment and Completion of Certain Legislative Documents, adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on 28 December 2011, 10 February 2012 16 Established by: Georgian President’s Decree: Approving the Rules for Stateless Status Determination, No. 515, 27 June 2012 Established by: Act II of 2007 on the Admission and Right of Residence of Third-Country Nationals, 1 July 2007 17 Established by: Department Circular No. 058 – Establishing the Refugees and Stateless Status Determination Procedure, 18 October 2012 18 Established by a change of Immigration Rules taking effect on 6 April 2013. See also: Applications for leave to remain as a stateless person – Guidance, UK Border Agency, 1 May 2013 19 Established by: Act 52-893 of 25 July 1952 on the right to asylum (amended in 2003 and 2006), 52-893, 25 July 1952 20 Italy has two parallel statelessness-specific protection mechanisms, an administrative and a purely judicial one. The first is largely considered as void, mainly due to the unrealistic administrative requirements set by the relevant regulation. The second has been functioning in practice for several decades; the earliest judgments that could be retrieved in previous research were from the seventies. This regime is based on Section 2 697 of the Italian Civil Code (Royal Decree no. 262 of 16 March 1942), therefore it is possible that there were even earlier relevant judgments. Given that only the second framework can be considered as functional at the time of writing, only this will be used as reference in this document. 6