422 Melbourne University Law Review [Vol 40:401 deliberately has not been extended to stateless persons who do not also qualify for refugee status or complementary protection.103 While refugees and stateless persons are similarly situated, ‘[s]tatelessness and refugee status are by no means identical phenomena.’104 A Protection for Stateless Persons Pursuant to the Refugee Convention As mentioned above, the drafters of the Refugee Convention made an explicit decision to confine the scope of the Refugee Convention to refugees, preferring that de jure stateless persons (who were not also refugees) be dealt with in a distinct instrument. However, it was nonetheless recognised that stateless persons could qualify for refugee status if they were unable to return to their country of habitual residence owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for a Refugee Convention reason. Accordingly, art 1(A)(2) of the Refugee Convention defines a refugee as someone: [who] owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.105 We know that ‘most refugees today are not stateless, and most stateless persons are not refugees.’106 Yet, most states do not have a separate regime in place for determining statelessness. For those that do, the UNHCR recommends that each claim should be separately assessed and both statuses recognised,107 although refugee status should be considered first, given the (b) the death penalty will be carried out on the non-citizen; or (c) the non-citizen will be subjected to torture; or (d) the non-citizen will be subjected to cruel or inhuman treatment or punishment; or (e) the non-citizen will be subjected to degrading treatment or punishment. 103 It applies to stateless persons who are refugees or who meet the complementary protection criteria, but not to people who are ‘just’ stateless. 104 Guy S Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam, The Refugee in International Law (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2007) 68. 105 Refugee Convention art 1(A)(2) (emphasis added). 106 Refugee Status, UN Doc PPLA/2014/01, 15. See generally, UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees 2012: In Search of Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2012) 108–9. 107 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, above n 20, 31 [78].