PART I: HISTORICAL SURVEY OF INTERNATIONAL ACTION ON DE FACTO STATELESSNESS 1. INTERNATIONAL ACTION ON STATELESSNESS PRIOR TO THE ADOPTION OF THE 1954 CONVENTION RELATING TO THE STATUS OF STATELESS PERSONS In 1930, the Hague Conference for the Codification of International Law convened by the League of Nations adopted the Convention on Certain Questions relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws. The Convention included a number of provisions aimed at reducing some of the causes of statelessness.6 These provisions were supplemented by the 1930 Protocol relating to a Certain Case of Statelessness, also adopted by the Hague Conference, Article 1 of which provided: In a State whose nationality is not conferred by the mere fact of birth in its territory, a person born in its territory of a mother possessing the nationality of that State and of a father without nationality or of unknown nationality shall have the nationality of the said State. With a view to determining certain relations of stateless persons to the State whose nationality they last possessed,7 the Hague Conference also adopted a Special Protocol concerning Statelessness, which provided in Article 1 that: If a person, after entering a foreign country, loses his nationality without acquiring another nationality, the State whose nationality he last possessed is bound to admit him, at the request of the State in whose territory he is: (i) if he is permanently indigent either as a result of an incurable disease or for any other reason; or (ii) if he has been sentenced, in the State where he is, to not less than one month’s imprisonment and has either served his sentence or obtained total or partial remission thereof. In the first case the State whose nationality such person last possessed may refuse to receive him, if it undertakes to meet the cost of relief in the country where he is as from the thirtieth day from the date on which the request was made. In the second case the cost of sending him back shall be borne by the country making the request. This latter Protocol never entered into force because it did not receive the required minimum ten ratifications. It was not until after the Second World War that international action was taken to establish a protection regime specifically for stateless persons. Until then, action had been taken only to address the protection needs of certain categories of refugees. Thus, the League of Nations had set up: • • • 6 7 A High Commissioner’s Office for Russian and Armenian Refugees (1921 1930); The Nansen International Office (1930 – 1938); The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees coming from Germany (1933), subsequently incorporated in the League of Nations (1936 to 31 December 1946); See Article 7 on expatriation permits, Articles 8 and 9 on the nationality of married women, Articles 13 to 16 on the nationality of children, and Article 17 on adoption. See preamble to the 1930 Special Protocol concerning Statelessness. 1