Statelessness Working Paper Series 2016/04 1. Introduction At present there are over 10 million people worldwide who are not recognised as citizens of any country, although the true number of stateless persons is likely to be significantly higher. 1 This precarious situation is commonly referred to as statelessness. Confusion surrounding precise figures of statelessness are due to problems with mapping the issue, accruing accurate evidence, and remedying gaps in data.2 The international legal definition of statelessness is set out in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention that defines a stateless individual as a person “not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”. 3 This definition describes a certain type of statelessness characterised by the formal, legal lack of a nationality commonly known as de jure statelessness. There have been two legal instruments created by the United Nations (UN), in the form of conventions, which have sought to both protect stateless individuals, and prevent levels of statelessness from proliferating throughout the world. The first was the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, to which there are now 80 signatories.4 The second was the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of statelessness, 5 which today has 55 countries endorsing its recommendations.6 1.1 Protection of stateless persons under international law Despite the 1954 Stateless Convention sharing the same overall approach as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, there remain several significant differences.7 For instance, there is no prohibition against refoulement (Article 22, 1951 Convention) in the statelessness conventions— which refers to the forcible return of refugees to a country where they are liable to be persecuted— no protection against penalties for illegal entry (Article 3, 195 Convention), and both the right to employment and the right of association provide for a lower standard of treatment 8 than the equivalent provisions in the 1951 Convention. In short, refugees benefit from a stronger and better ratified convention than their stateless counterparts.9 Having explored the legal differences between the refugee and stateless conventions, the question remains whether stateless individuals can find further protection under the broader scope of international human rights law. It is important to note that within international law, regardless of whether an individual is a citizen or non-citizen, everyone has an equal right to human rights protection.10 General Comment No. 15, on ‘The Position of Aliens Under the Covenant’, adopted at the Human Rights Committee of 1986, reiterates this idea of equality when it states: the rights set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) apply to everyone, irrespective of reciprocity, and irrespective of his or her nationality or statelessness … [T]he general rule is that each one of the rights of the Covenant must be guaranteed without discrimination between citizens and aliens.11 In conjunction, there is a substantial body of international law that documents the importance of nationality laws being consistent with the governing principles of international law. For example, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) declares that “everyone has the right 1 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Introduction to Statelessness (2015) Ibid 3 United Nations, 1954 Convention relating to the status of stateless persons (1954) 4 ibid 5 United Nations, 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961) 6 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Conventions on Statelessness (2014) 7 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Handbook on protection of stateless persons (2014) 8 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The 1951 Refugee Convention (1951) 9 K Perks & A de Chickera, ‘The Silent Stateless and the Unhearing World: Can Equality Compel Us to Listen?’ (2009) 3 The Equal Rights Review 10 United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC), Final Report of the Special Rapporteur to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination, The Rights of Non-Citizens (2003) 11 Human Rights Committee (HRC), General comment No. 15: The position of aliens under the Covenant (1986) 1 2