authorities. Those instruments can be a Constitution, a Presidential decree, or a citizenship act. Most people are considered nationals by operation of only one State’s laws – usually either the laws of the State in which the person was born (jus soli) or the laws of the State of which the person’s parents were nationals when the individual was born (jus sanguinis). Whenever an administrative procedure allows for discretion in granting citizenship, applicants for citizenship cannot be considered nationals until their applications have been completed and approved and the citizenship of that State is granted in accordance with the law. Individuals who have to apply for citizenship, and those whom the law defines as eligible to apply, but whose applications are rejected, are not citizens of that State by operation of that State’s law. Individuals who have not received nationality automatically or through an individual decision under the operation of any State’s laws are known as de jure stateless persons: persons who are stateless with reference to applicable law. It is presumed that an individual has a nationality unless there is some evidence to the contrary. However, sometimes the States with which an individual might have a genuine link cannot agree as to which of them is the State that has granted citizenship to that person. The individual is thus unable to demonstrate that he/she is de jure stateless, yet he/she has no effective nationality and does not enjoy national protection. He/She is considered to be de facto stateless. Although the Convention’s drafters felt it was necessary to make the distinction between de jure stateless persons (those who have not received nationality automatically or through an individual decision under the operation of any State’s laws) and de facto stateless persons (those who cannot establish their nationality), they did recognize the similarity of their positions. The Final Act of the Convention addresses the issue of de facto stateless persons with a non-binding recommendation: “that each Contracting State, when it recognizes as valid the reasons for which a person has renounced the protection of the State of which he is a national, consider sympathetically the possibility of according to that person the treatment which the Convention accords to stateless persons.” The decision as to whether a person is entitled to the benefits of the Convention is made by each State Party in accordance with its own established procedures. Through its representations/offices or its services at Headquarters, UNHCR is available to provide advice on how to create and implement these procedures, if requested. (See Annex 4 for a list of UNHCR offices.) 11