include a residence permit, access to economic, social, civil, and political rights, the right to administrative assistance, exemption from requirements stateless people cannot meet because they are stateless, and other rights protected by international law. States should also establish a facilitated route to naturalisation so stateless people can acquire a nationality and resolve their statelessness.26 22. The Czech Republic does not currently have a dedicated SDP to identify stateless persons on its territory, determine their statelessness, and facilitate their access to rights. Czech legislation has no legal provisions reflecting the definition of a stateless person pursuant to Article 1 of the 1954 Convention. While there are other procedures in which statelessness can be identified, there is no clear procedure set in law, no guidance nor training on statelessness for decision-makers, and only limited rights are granted as a consequence of statelessness determination. 23. Until 2021, determination of statelessness was addressed in the Asylum Act. Between 2019 and 2021, jurisprudence conferred by analogy the same rights that asylumseekers had to applicants for statelessness determination, such as the right to stay on the territory and receive an identity document during the procedure, the right to accommodation in the reception centre for asylum seekers and the right to health insurance.27 24. On 2 August 2021, an amendment to the Act on Residence of Foreign Nationals entered into force, moving the possibility to determine statelessness under the provisions of the Asylum Act to the Immigration Act, thus attempting to change how statelessness is recognised in the Czech Republic.28 The amendment makes it more difficult for stateless people to have their status recognised and be granted the rights under the 1954 Convention.29 25. The new procedure is very unclear. There are no provisions to regulate the status of stateless applicants, nor procedural safeguards, and the right to remain on the territory is not guaranteed. Prior to the 2021 legislative amendment, procedural rights, including the standard of proof to evidence statelessness, were analogous to those applicable in asylum applications, thanks to several years of constant national jurisprudence, including the Supreme Administrative Court’s case law.30 The 2021 legislative amendment was an attempt by the Ministry to avoid having to implement the domestic jurisprudence. However, shortly after the entry into force of the amendment, a national case reiterated the necessity of preserving the analogy with the asylum procedure, regardless of whether the statelessness procedure is formally regulated under the Asylum Act or the Immigration Act.31 . 26. This amendment presents a risk to gradually erode the rights of stateless people and the procedural safeguards that were in place. It has resulted in the amended law not only being vague and unclear but also unconstitutional. The Czech Ombudsperson´s office has reiterated the constitutional priority of international obligations and thus the 26 Statelessness Index, Statelessness Determination and Protection in Europe: Good Practice, Challenges, and Risks, 2021. The Supreme Administrative Court decided in March 2019 that the procedure to determine statelessness should be analogous to the refugee determination procedure. See Supreme Administrative Court (Nejvyšší správní soud) case no. 4 Azs 365/2018-74 from 12 March 2019. 28 Section 170d of Act on Residence of Foreign Nationals in the Czech Republic no. 326/1999 Sb. “Immigration Act”. 29 New Legal Amendment Reduces the Rights of Stateless people in the Czech Republic, Statelessness Index, 2021, https://index.statelessness.eu/news/new-legal-amendment-reduces-rights-stateless-people-czech-republic . 30 Supreme Administrative Court (NSS), case no. 4 Azs 365/2018, 12 March 2019. 31 Municipal Court Prague of 26. January 2022, Nr. 10 A 98/2021-45 (to be published on www.nssoud.cz) 27 6