2016]
The Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Australia
457
such obligations. It concludes that despite Australia’s relatively early ratification of the
1961 Convention, there remain ongoing issues with respect to its full implementation.
CONTENTS
I
II
III
IV
V
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 457
Background and Context: What Is Statelessness and Why Does It Matter? ... 459
The International Legal Framework and Australia’s Obligations ...................... 461
Statelessness and Citizenship Law in Australia.................................................... 468
The Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Australian Law:
An Analysis ............................................................................................................... 470
A Prevention of Statelessness: Grant of Nationality to Avoid
Statelessness ................................................................................................. 471
1 Stateless Children Born in Australia ............................................ 471
2 Access to Australian Citizenship for Those Who Arrive in
Australia as Stateless Persons ........................................................ 477
3 Children Born Outside Australia to an Australian Citizen ...... 479
4 Potential Barriers to Citizenship: Deficiencies in Birth
Registration in Australia ............................................................... 481
B Challenges to the Prevention of Statelessness: Withdrawal and
Loss of Nationality ...................................................................................... 487
C New Challenges to the Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness:
National Security, Terrorism and the Withdrawal of Citizenship ........ 488
VI Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 505
I INTRODUCTION
Statelessness is not merely a legal problem, it is a human problem.1
It has long been recognised that collective international action is essential ‘to
ensure that everyone shall have an effective right to a nationality’.2 Yet,
although the international community originally considered the problems of
statelessness and refugee movements to be intertwined, the decision in the
early 1950s to establish two separate legal regimes resulted in a relegation of
1
Carol A Batchelor, ‘Statelessness and the Problem of Resolving Nationality Status’ (1998) 10
International Journal of Refugee Law 156, 159. A similar observation was made by Paul Weis:
Paul Weis, ‘The United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961’ (1962) 11
International and Comparative Law Quarterly 1073, 1090.
2
ESC Res 116 (VI) (D), UN ESCOR, 6th sess, UN Doc E/777 (12 March 1948, adopted
1--2 March 1948) 18.