Statelessness At Home 113 of statelessness. For the time being, Hanna remains a face amongst the crowd of students at Tilburg Law School: coming to class every day, submitting assignments, sitting for exams. Even though she feels Dutch, she is constrained and stuck in limbo as face in the crowd of stateless persons limited to certain rights and freedoms as an individual compared to her friends and peers whom she has grown up with here in the Netherlands. 3 Statelessness in the Netherlands In 2010 there were 85069 persons in the Netherlands registered as stateless or of unknown nationality.11 From this group, only 2062 persons were registered as stateless whereas the other 83007, including Hanna, were registered as being of unknown nationality. This means that persons who are in fact stateless can still be registered with unknown nationality. Hanna’s situation confirms that statelessness, indeed, exists in this country and pinpoints some of the difficulties stateless persons can face in the Netherlands. This individual story shows that authorities do not necessarily have the tools or expertise to deal with statelessness, which is a reflection of the low level of awareness and little research that exists on statelessness in the Netherlands so far. In November 2011, UNHCR published its mapping report on the situation of stateless people in the Netherlands.12 While the Netherlands has been a party to both the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless persons and the 1961 Convention on the reduction of Statelessness13 since 1962 and 1985 respectively, this study made clear that gaps exist in the implementation of these international norms and that the protection of stateless people in the Netherlands is not guaranteed in all cases. In theory, a stateless person can also enjoy the rights that are attached to the temporary and permanent residence permits that exist in the Netherlands, providing in general the protection to stateless people as set out in the Statelessness Conventions and UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness. However, the lack of a statelessness determination procedure and the fact that statelessness is not a ground for acquisition of 11 12 13 UNHCR, ‘Mapping Statelessness in the Netherlands’ (November 2011) <www.refworld .org/docid/4eef65da2.html> accessed 30 October 2013. Ibid. As from now referred to as 1954/1961 Convention. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (adopted 30 Augustus 1961, entered into force 13 December 1975) 989 UNTS 175 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (adopted 28 September 1954, entered into force 6 June 1960) 360 UNTS 117. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 108-116