406 Melbourne University Law Review [Vol 40:401 (‘Refugee Convention’)17 and the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons (‘1954 Convention’),18 the twin international regimes dedicated to the identification of those in need of international protection.19 In Part VI we make a case for the establishment of a dedicated statelessness status determination procedure in Australia, and make recommendations as to the key features of such a procedure. I I B AC KG R O U N D A N D C O N T E X T : W HAT I S S TAT E L E S S N E S S A N D W H Y D O E S I T M AT T E R ? Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention establishes the universal definition of a ‘stateless person’ as ‘a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.’20 This is a deliberately narrow, technical definition that ‘is not one of quality, simply one of fact.’21 It does not take into account whether nationality is effective, but only whether a person has it, as a matter of law. Nor is the definition concerned with the reasons for the individual’s lack of nationality; the absence of nationality in and of itself is sufficient to ground an entitlement to protection.22 Nationality refers to the 17 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, opened for signature 28 July 1951, 189 UNTS 137 (entered into force 22 April 1954). 18 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, opened for signature 28 September 1954, 360 UNTS 117 (entered into force 6 June 1960). 19 States also have international protection obligations under human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976) (‘ICCPR’) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, opened for signature 10 December 1984, 1465 UNTS 85 (entered into force 26 June 1987). However, as their full titles indicate, the Refugee Convention and the 1954 Convention are the two international treaties to set out a specific legal status for their beneficiaries. 20 The 1954 Convention also sets out the basic principles underpinning the application of the treaty (arts 2–11), and sets out the rights and entitlements of stateless persons (arts 12–32). Although it currently has only 89 states parties, the UNHCR argues that it also codifies the customary international law definition, citing the International Law Commission: see UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (2014) 9 [13]. For analysis of the definition, see at 9–23 [13]–[56]. 21 Carol A Batchelor, ‘Stateless Persons: Some Gaps in International Protection’ (1995) 7 International Journal of Refugee Law 232, 232. 22 As observed by Laura van Waas, ‘The UN Statelessness Conventions’ in Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014) 64, 72.