identified' (31 people in December 2020), and 'Palestinians' (195 people in December 2020).22 The Ministry of Interior also reports figures on the number of asylum seekers and people granted international protection disaggregated by nationality. It reported that, in 2020, 11 applications for international protection were initiated by people recorded as stateless, and up to December 2020 there had been 26 stateless persons granted refugee status and 62 granted subsidiary protection status.23 18. These numbers do not provide an accurate statistical overview of the Czech Republic's stateless population. The Government only regularly reports figures for stateless people legally residing in the country, or for persons who apply for international protection, and these numbers are spread across different registries. No government figures are available for the stateless population as a whole, so estimates are likely an underrepresentation and stateless persons living without residence status in the Czech Republic are mainly invisible in the data. 19. The legal and policy framework in the Czech Republic has some positive aspects and some significant gaps. The Czech Republic is party to most relevant international and regional instruments, including three of the four core statelessness conventions (although, as noted, with some important reservations to the 1954 Convention). However, the Czech Republic does not have a dedicated statelessness determination procedure. Since 2019, the Ministry of Interior has issued decisions confirming statelessness under the 1954 Convention, but there is no clear procedure set in law for these decisions, although jurisprudence requires that the rules applying to the refugee determination procedure should apply (see Issue 1). There are also gaps in the legal framework to protect stateless people from arbitrary immigration detention (see Issue 2). There are positive safeguards in place to prevent childhood statelessness, but the safeguard for children born in the Czech Republic is only partial and depends on the actions or status of parents (see Issue 3). Positively, there are no legal powers for the authorities to deprive someone of Czech nationality, no provisions for automatic loss, and safeguards are in place to prevent statelessness in cases of voluntary renunciation of nationality. Issue 1 – Statelessness determination and access to rights 20. Identifying stateless people in the country is the first step to providing adequate protection and rights enshrined in the 1954 Convention. Although the 1954 Convention does not specifically provide for how statelessness should be determined, UNHCR guidance has confirmed that this is best fulfilled through a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP) with the necessary safeguards and procedural guarantees. In particular, it should be fair, efficient, and easily accessible.24 The lack of an SDP results in a failure to uphold the rights of stateless people, leaving many facing years of uncertainty, social exclusion, risks of arbitrary immigration detention, and other human rights violations.25 21. Moreover, according to international norms and standards, statelessness status should 22 Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, Statistics, Foreigners with valid residence, December 2020. Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, International Protection in the Czech Republic, annual statistical overview, 2019; Czech Statistical Office, Foreigners in the Czech Republic (Annual Report), 2019 - data up to 31.12.2019; Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, International Protection in the Czech Republic, Annual Statistic Overview, Data up to 31.12.2020. 24 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014: http://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/statelessness/53b698ab9/handbook-protection-stateless-persons.html. 25 Statelessness Index, Statelessness Determination and Protection in Europe: Good Practice, Challenges, and Risks, 2021 23 5