The Czech translation of the 1954 Convention, as published in the Collection of International Treaties, contains several linguistic discrepancies.39 The 1954 Convention, as well as the 1951 Refugee Convention, are based on the concept of a gradual increase of rights guaranteed in relation to the nature of a person’s stay and link to the State’s territory. In this respect, the 1954 Convention distinguishes between the status of stateless persons lawfully in and lawfully staying in the territory of the Contracting State. However, the Czech translation uses stateless persons “lawfully in” the territory of the State in both cases. Another inaccuracy concerns the translation of the definition of a stateless person under Article 1 of the 1954 Convention. The Czech language version does not sufficiently capture the meaning of the term [under] operation of its law as it only refers to the laws of the State but disregards the aspect of the practical application (operation) of these laws, which is fundamental to the definition of a stateless persons being a mixed question of fact and law.40 Czech national legislation does not provide a legal status for persons recognized as stateless. The content of and the obligations under the international treaties are, however, part of the Constitutional order of the Czech Republic. Article 10 of the Czech Constitution recognizes the primacy of international treaties in case of conflict with national legislation. Therefore, under certain circumstances, the aforementioned absence of a regulation of the status of stateless persons can be overcome by direct application of the 1954 Convention. Nonetheless, the lack of implementation of international obligations towards stateless persons has a considerable impact on the effective realisation of their rights as well as on the predictability and legality of administrative and judicial procedures which lack clear legal guidelines in this area. Czech legislation has no legal provisions reflecting the definition of a stateless person pursuant to Article 1 of the 1954 Convention. According to the Law on the Residence of Foreign Nationals (hereinafter the “Aliens Act”), stateless persons fall under the general category of foreigners, without their specific situation taken into account. Furthermore, stateless persons do not benefit from any special legal regulation concerning their residence status in the Czech Republic. They are obliged to rely on the existing types of residence permits and go through the respective administrative procedures to obtain them. This means that they must comply with the same legal requirements as nationals of other countries which may prove problematic, inter alia, in respect of Article 6 of the 1954 Convention. According to this provision the term “in the same circumstances” implies that any requirements imposed on a particular individual in order to enjoy certain right must be fulfilled, except for the requirements which, by their nature, cannot be fulfilled by a stateless person. This rule covers situations when the law requires stateless persons to submit documents, for example valid travel documents, which they do not and cannot possess. They are, thus, unable to meet the conditions for obtaining a residence permit.41 The Czech Republic does not have a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP) set out in law. Instead, there is only a short provision in Section 8 (d) of the Asylum Act, effective from 15 December 2015,42 confirming the competence of the MoI to decide on whether one fulfils the definition of a stateless person according to the 1954 Convention. However, there are no procedural provisions governing decision-making on the status of stateless persons nor provisions regulating the legal status of applicants during the proceedings and of stateless persons after the final decision is rendered.43 This may result in the necessity to seek ad hoc solutions. 18 39 Communication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs No. 108/2004 Coll. of International Treaties, on the adoption of the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 40 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, cited above, paras. 22-24. 41 The European Court of Human Rights underlined this aspect of Article 6 of the 1954 Convention in the judgment Hoti v. Croatia, cited above, para. 137. 42 Amended by Act No. 314/2015 Coll. 43 According to the explanatory memorandum to Act No. 314/2015 Coll., it follows that proceedings on international protection are to be applied by analogy: “(d) establishes the competence of the Ministry to decide on applications made pursuant to the Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons for which international protection mechanisms are also applied. It is not appropriate to create special procedure for such rare requests; as mentioned above, the international protection mechanisms shall be used, including the exclusion of certain provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure, as foreseen in Section 9, while the application of the Code of Administrative Procedure as a general rule shall be the basis.” Faces of Statelessness in the Czech Republic