Article 2 of the Human Rights Act No 30 of 1999 (Lov om styrking af menneskerettighetenes stilling i norsk ret or Menneskerettighetsloven) provides an example of the incorporation of human rights conventions. The article declares the ECHR and some of its protocols, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the ICCPR and some of its protocols as Norwegian law and binding as such. 2.2 A statistical overview of the stateless population in Norway 2.2.1 Specifics on the data used Some statistics on the number of stateless persons currently living in Norway have already been published, and others were gathered from the authorities that may register persons as stateless for this report. Several gaps were identified. The institutional capacity to produce statistics related to statelessness is somewhat limited. Also, issues relating to registration processes present challenges. The most important authorities whose work is relevant to the mapping of the stateless population in Norway are the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), the National Register (Folkeregisteret, NR) and Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå, SSB).39 Official statistics from these authorities are easy to obtain and are published on the websites of UDI and SSB. Where not published, existing statistics can be requested. However, this report’s mapping of the stateless population in Norway required more detail than was available in the published statistics.40 In order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the stateless population in Norway, the relevant authorities were asked to provide a more detailed breakdown of the data. Although the contacted authorities were eager to assist, some of the requested statistics could not be provided due to a lack of human resources to produce new data or technical shortcomings in the original collection of data. For these reasons, there is limited information about the causes of statelessness in Norway, gender and age distribution, civil status, and other facts that would have been of great value in mapping the profile of the stateless population in Norway. Further, each administrative organization that provides statistics has a different purpose for its registrations, which might lead to differences in the number of persons registered as stateless by different authorities for a particular reference period. UDI has statistics on permits granted, and the National Register has statistics on persons living in Norway with a permit. Statistics prepared by UDI are based on registrations of nationality/ statelessness and are produced mainly for internal, administrative use. The legal basis of UDI’s competence is found in the Immigration Act and Nationality Act, which provide that UDI has authority over immigration, international protection, and citizenship. Statistics on persons with legal residence in Norway are based on registrations made by NR, the authority that operates the Central Population Registry (CPR).41 NR is a part of the Norwegian Tax administration. The primary aim of registration of nationality or statelessness under the CPR is the use of this information by the taxing authorities. Accordingly, the CPR is the main source for tax collection, voter rolls, and general 16 39 The role of these authorities and the nature of the statistics they produce or publish will be explained further in Chapter 2.2. UDI registers and produces statistics, the National Register only registers statistics, while the SSB only produces statistics. E-mail from Kåre Vassenden 29 June 2015. 40 Questionnaires containing, amongst others, requests for data on the stateless population in Norway, were therefore sent to the national stakeholders. See Annexes 1, 2 and 3. 41 The legal basis for the registration can be found in the Act on the Central Population Register, No 1 from 1970, Lov om Folkeregistrering or Folkeregistreringloven (‘Act on the Central Population Register’), see especially Articles 1 and 8 (1), available at: http://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1970-01-16-1. M A P P I N G STAT E L E S S N E S S I N N O RWAY