• A High Commissioner’s Office for “Nansen” refugees and refugees coming from Germany (1938 to 31 December 1946).8 Additionally, an independent International Conference, held at Evian in 1938, established the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (1938 to 1 July 1947). The Committee’s terms of reference were initially to give international protection to German refugees, but were subsequently extended in 1943 to “all persons whoever they may be, who, as a result of events in Europe, have had to leave, or may have to leave, their countries of residence because of the danger to their lives or liberties on account of their race, religion or political beliefs”.9 Each of the categories of refugees emerging before the Second World War was defined inter alia as a person lacking protection. For example, the Arrangement relating to the Issue of Identity Certificates to Russian and Armenian Refugees of 12 May 1926 defined a “Russian refugee” as Any person of Russian origin who does not enjoy or who no longer enjoys the protection of the Government of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and who has not acquired another nationality and an “Armenian refugee” as Any person of Armenian origin formerly a subject of the Ottoman Empire who does not enjoy or who no longer enjoys the protection of the Government of the Turkish Republic and who has not acquired another nationality. As will be seen below, “lack of protection” is also a key defining characteristic of a stateless person, be the person stateless de jure or stateless de facto. 1.1 Memorandum on Statelessness by the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees In March 1946, the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees reprinted for distribution to senior Army officers and staff of the recently established United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) a Memorandum entitled “Statelessness and Some of its Causes: An Outline”.10 The Memorandum had originally been prepared for use by Committee Representatives, who were called upon on a daily basis “to formulate an opinion as regards numerous cases of indetermined nationality, or of persons claiming to be stateless.”11 Chapter II of the Memorandum describes de jure and de facto statelessness as follows: 1. The term “stateless” defines an individual whom no country recognizes as possessing its nationality. It is through the medium of their nationality that individuals can normally enjoy benefits from the existence of the Law of Nations (international public law). Modern society is composed of sovereign States. Normally, human beings are members (possess nationality) of such sovereign collectivities. They owe allegiance to the State. The concomitant is that the State affords them protection, not merely when they reside in the territory of their country of nationality, but also when they are abroad. 8 9 10 11 United Nations Department of Social Affairs, “A Study of Statelessness”, August 1949 (reedited by UNHCR, 1995), p. 34. “A Study of Statelessness”, op. cit., pp. 38 – 41. UNRRA was established in 1944 to provide emergency relief to the displaced. At the end of the Second World War, it also organized the voluntary repatriation of millions of refugees. Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, “Statelessness and its Causes: An Outline”, March 1946, p. 2. 2