tilburg law review 19 (2014) 194-202
brill.com/tilr
Moving Statelessness Forward
on the International Agenda
Tamás Molnár
Head of unit, Unit for Migration, Asylum and Border Management,
Department of EU Cooperation, Ministry of Interior (Hungary);
Adjunct Professor, Institute of International Studies,
Corvinus University of Budapest
tamas.molnar@uni-corvinus.hu
Abstract
This paper aims at shedding more light on the recent re-emergence of the issue of
statelessness on the international agenda, from a government perspective. I wish to
outline what a government can do in order to address statelessness through foreign
policy initiatives and to highlight the issue of protecting stateless persons in different international fora. Hungary is a good example for that, being party to all international conventions on the protection of the stateless and on the reduction and
prevention of statelessness. This shows to the outside world Hungary’s strong commitment to protecting stateless people and preventing future cases of it as well as
reducing their existing number. In 2007, Hungary also established a self-standing
statelessness determination procedure. Since then, the government has put more
emphasis on the promotion of the protection of stateless people and the reduction
of statelessness in her international relations. This article gives some examples on
implementing this policy goal and mainstreaming statelessness in international
cooperation.
Keywords
statelessness – issue emergence – foreign policy initiatives – Hungary
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/22112596-01902019