Legal briefing on the rights of stateless Palestinians in the UK September 2025 This is supported by the definition of nationality under the 1997 European Convention on Nationality,27 and in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Nottebohm judgment.28 The term ‘national’ in the definition of a stateless person under the 1954 Convention reflects ‘a formal link, of a political and legal character, between the individual and a particular State’,29 which is different from the concept of nationality in the sense of membership of a religious, linguistic or ethnic group. Many Palestinians consider themselves to be Palestinian ‘nationals’ in view of their or their family’s long-standing ties to Palestine, as well as their ethnicity, and shared political and cultural affinity. This includes Palestinians with layered histories of displacement, who may have been born in Syria, Lebanon, or other countries outside of Palestine because their parents or grandparents were forcibly displaced. Furthermore, Palestinians are recognised internationally as a national people – a legal classification under international law that entitles them to the right to self-determination and other rights.30 The recognition of Palestinians as stateless under international law (unless they hold the nationality of another country) serves to ensure that those living without a legal bond to a State (the State of Palestine or any other country) are afforded the protection to which they are entitled under the statelessness conventions. It ensures that Palestinians can live in dignity and are afforded basic human rights in their host countries. As a result, the recognition that a person lacks a nationality under international law, and is therefore stateless, does not undermine the national identity of a group of people in the context of a shared political or cultural identity, nor is it contrary to Palestinians’ connection to Palestine, their right to self-identify as Palestinian nationals, or their right to self-determination. Furthermore, recognition of statelessness does not interfere with Palestinians’ right of return, which has been recognised by numerous UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions, as well as by the ICJ, and which remains intact for all Palestinian refugees, regardless of whether they have acquired the nationality of another country or whether they are stateless.31 27 The 1997 European Convention on Nationality, Article 2(a). See Nottebohm Case, Judgment of 6 April 1955, ICJ Reports 1955, 23: ‘nationality is a legal bond having as its basis a social fact of attachment, a genuine connection of existence, interests and sentiments, together with the existence of reciprocal rights and duties’. For further information on the criteria for establishing a ‘genuine link’, see Susan M Akram, ‘Palestinian Nationality and “Jewish” Nationality: From the Lausanne Treaty to Today’ in Farsakh, Leila (ed) Rethinking Statehood in Palestine: Self-Determination and Decolonization Beyond Partition (University of California Press, 2021) p 192-224, 193. 29 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons (2014), paras 52. 30 This recognition dates to the 1919 Covenant of the League of Nations, which acknowledges that Palestinians were one of the communities formerly part of the Turkish/Ottoman Empire whose ‘existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone’ (Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 April 1919). See also BADIL, Palestinian Self-Determination: Land, People and Practicality, Working Paper No. 28 (October 2021) p 4. The right to self-determination has since been affirmed numerous times by the UN and the ICJ; see, e.g., UNGA, Resolution 2672(XXV) (8 December 1970); UN General Assembly, Resolution 78/192 (22 December 2023); ICJ, Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (19 July 2024) para 102; ICJ, Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (9 July 2004) para 118. 31 ICJ, Advisory Opinion (19 July 2024) (fn 30); UN General Assembly, Resolution A/ES-10/L.31/Rev.1 (13 September 2024) para 3(d); UNGA, Resolution 79/81 Resolution 79/81 (10 December 2024) para 15(c). For earlier resolutions, see UNGA, Resolution 194(III) para 11 and UNGA, Resolution 153(VI) para 2; See also W. Thomas Mallison and Sally V. Mallison, ’An International Law Analysis of the Major United Nations Resolutions Concerning the Palestinian Question’ (1979). The right of an individual to return to his place of origin or nationality has been recognised in multiple human rights treaties and UN resolutions. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Article 12(4) states that ‘no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.’ The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969), Article 5(d)(ii), obligates states to eliminate racial discrimination ‘in all its forms’ and to ‘guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of […] the right to leave any country, including one’s own and to return to one’s country.’ 28 9