PART T WO:
THE PREVENTION AND REDUCTION OF
STATELESSNESS IN AUSTRALIA —
AN ONGOING CHALLENGE
M I C H E L L E F O S T E R , * J A N E M C A DA M † A N D
D AV I NA WA D L E Y ‡
Despite renewed global interest in statelessness over the past decade, stimulated in part by
the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 2011
and the 60th anniversary of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons in 2014, there has been virtually no legal or academic analysis of statelessness in
Australia. This article, together with its companion piece, provides the first comprehensive analysis of the state of statelessness in Australian law. While the focus of the first
article was on Australia’s compliance with obligations to identify and accord a secure
legal status to stateless persons who seek protection in Australia, the focus of the present
article is on Australia’s obligations with respect to the prevention and reduction of
statelessness. Even though Australia does not have a large stateless population, however
measured, there are nonetheless cohorts of people who do not have a nationality, may be
at risk of losing their nationality, or may face difficulties acquiring Australian citizenship.
This article undertakes the first comprehensive assessment of the extent to which
Australian law complies with international legal obligations to prevent and reduce
statelessness. In particular, it provides the first in-depth analysis of the ramifications of
the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Act 2015 (Cth) for
*
LLB, BCom (Hons) (UNSW), LLM, SJD (Mich); Professor and Director, International
Refugee Law Research Programme, Institute for International Law and the Humanities,
Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. We are grateful to the Melbourne Law
School Law Research Service, especially Robin Gardner, for undertaking excellent initial
research, and to Rebecca Dowd for her outstanding editorial assistance. We are also grateful
to participants at the Workshop on Researching Statelessness and Citizenship, Melbourne
Law School, January 2016, co-hosted by The University of Melbourne (Melbourne School of
Government and Melbourne Law School) and the UNHCR, at which some of the ideas in
this article were presented. We thank the three anonymous reviewers who provided very
helpful feedback. Any errors or omissions remain our own.
†
BA (Hons), LLB (Hons) (Syd), DPhil (Oxf); Scientia Professor and Director, Andrew &
Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, Faculty of Law, UNSW Sydney.
‡
LLB (UQ); Independent Consultant on Statelessness and Migration; Solicitor of the Supreme
Court of Queensland; Registered Migration Agent.
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