The UN Secretary-General duly submitted a preliminary draft convention to the ad hoc Committee for discussion. Article 2 of the draft provided that in addition to applying to refugees, who may be de jure or de facto stateless, the convention should apply to de jure stateless persons who are not refugees.24 However, in its initial report to ECOSOC, the Committee recommended instead a draft convention relating only to the status of refugees, with a separate protocol thereto relating to the status of stateless persons. According to the draft statelessness Protocol, most of the provisions of the draft refugee Convention were to be applied to stateless persons mutatis mutandis. The Committee also recommended to ECOSOC a draft resolution on the elimination of statelessness, which inter alia requested the International Law Commission to prepare a draft international agreement or agreements for the elimination of statelessness.25 Neither the draft Protocol nor the draft ECOSOC resolution defined “statelessness”, but the context in which they were prepared implies that they were referring to de jure statelessness only.26 After ECOSOC had discussed the Committee’s initial report, the Committee reconvened to take into account the comments received from ECOSOC and governments, following which it then submitted its final report, containing revised texts of the draft Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the draft Protocol relating to Stateless Persons.27 The report was submitted to the UN General Assembly, which in December 1950 adopted resolution 429 (V) convening a Conference of Plenipotentiaries to complete the drafting of and to sign both the Refugee Convention and the Statelessness Protocol, taking into consideration the draft texts prepared by ECOSOC and a definition of the term “refugee” proposed by the Assembly itself.28 The term “stateless person” remained undefined. 1.4 The 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees The Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons met in Geneva from 2 to 25 July 1951, but adopted only a Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The Protocol relating to the Status of Stateless Persons was referred back to the appropriate organs of the United Nations for further study.29 Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention provides that, for purposes of the Convention, the term “refugee” shall apply to any person who: As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and 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 24 25 26 27 28 29 Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems, “Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons – Memorandum by the Secretary-General”, E/AC.32/2, 3 January 1950. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems, E/1618, 17 February 1950. Note also that all the causes of statelessness referred to in the Committee’s Report are of de jure statelessness only: see E/1618, para. 23, p. 8. “Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Refugees and Stateless Persons, Second Session, 14 August to 25 August 1950”, E/1850, 25 August 1950. The General Assembly’s proposed definition was itself a variation of a definition that had been proposed by ECOSOC in resolution 319 (XI) B (II) of 11 August 1950. See the resolution in para. III of the Final Act of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons. 9