Expert Meeting Statelessness Determination Procedures and the Status of Stateless Persons Summary Conclusions Expert meeting convened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Open Society Justice Initiative, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-7 December, 2010 in the context of the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness This second expert meeting on statelessness focused on two practical prerequisites for ensuring the protection of stateless persons: (i) the mechanisms for determining who is stateless and (ii) the status and appropriate standards of treatment for stateless persons once they are recognized as such under national law.1 Two discussion papers prepared by UNHCR Consultant, Ruma Mandal, informed the meeting. The first paper was entitled Procedures for Determining whether a Person is Stateless and the second was entitled What Status should Stateless Persons receive under National Law? Thirty-five participants from eighteen countries with experience in government, NGOs, academia, the judiciary, the legal profession and international organizations contributed to the rich debate. Although the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons does not prescribe a particular means for determining statelessness, a few States have legislated formal procedures to this end, including by integrating determination of statelessness into existing administrative procedures. Many more States are confronted with situations of statelessness and are being increasingly required to make determinations on nationality – or statelessness – of persons on their territory. At the time of writing, 65 States are party to the 1954 Convention and there is limited State practice regarding statelessness determination procedures and statelessness status. While this expert meeting examined these questions with particular emphasis on how to improve State parties’ application of the 1954 Convention, the discussion also explored the pertinence of 1954 Convention standards for non-States parties. In this context, it was 1 In the context of the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness a series of Expert Meetings is being held. The discussions are in preparation for the drafting of guidelines under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate on the following five issues: (i) the definition of a “stateless person” in Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; (ii) the concept of de facto statelessness; (iii) procedures for determining whether a person is stateless; (iv) the status and attendant benefits to be accorded to stateless persons under national law; and (v) the scope of international legal safeguards for preventing statelessness among children or at birth. The meeting was funded by the European Commission