1 INTRODUCTION The question of whether arbitrary deprivation of nationality constitutes persecution for the purposes of a determination of refugee status has received increased attention in recent jurisprudence,1 however, no systematic argument has been made to date on the ordinary meaning of words, context, object and purpose of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees Refugee,2 as it applies to stateless refugees.3 This is an important question because in addition to the imperatives of refugee protection, the absence of determination procedures and a protection regime specifically for stateless persons, in many jurisdictions, makes refugee and/or complementary protection the only options.4 Legal status as a refugee (or indeed as a stateless person) is not a substitute for nationality in the sense of a legal status of citizenship, however it goes some way in guaranteeing a range of basic rights. Divergent State practice on whether to grant refugee status to a person, who claims to have been persecuted on the basis of having been denied the right to nationality, also requires analysis. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons5 and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 6 together form the foundation of the international legal framework to address statelessness.7 Statelessness refers to ‘a person who is not considered Throughout this paper, the word ‘jurisprudence’ refers to ‘courts’ decisions’ or case law, as in a civil law context. 2 United Nations Treaty Series (U.N.T.S.), vol.189, p.150. 3 This is in contrast with refugees with a nationality. See, e.g., Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, ‘The search for the one, true meaning…’ in G.S. Goodwin-Gill and H. Lambert The Limits of Transnational Law – Refugee Law, Policy Harmonization and Judicial Dialogue in the European Union, CUP 2010, 204-241; Jane McAdam, ‘Interpretation of the 1951 Convention’, in A. Zimmermann The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Its 1967 Protocol – A Commentary, OUP 2011, 75-115; James Hathaway, The Rights of Refugees under International Law, CUP 2005, 4874; James Hathaway and Michelle Foster, The Law of Refugee Status (Cambridge University Press 2014); Michelle Foster, International refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights (Cambridge University Press 2nd ed 2007); Hugo Storey, ‘Persecution: Towards a Working Definition’, in V. Chetail and C. Bauloz (eds.), Research Handbook on Migration and International Law, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014, pp.459-518; UNHCR, ‘Interpreting Article 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees’, Geneva, April 2001 - available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3b20a3914.html [accessed 5 August 2013] 4 There are currently 82 State parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and 59 State parties to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (http://www.refworld.org/statelessness.html - last accessed on 30 July 2014). Very few countries have established procedures to determine statelessness. Amongst those that have we find France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Mexico and Spain. See Office of the UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees 2012 – In search of solidarity, OUP 2012, at p.107. On 9 April 2013, the UK implemented the 1954 Status of Stateless Persons Convention with the introduction of a new stateless determination procedure to identify and protect stateless persons in the UK. New story available at: http://www.unhcr.org/print/5163ec646.html . However, elements of good practice exist in nonState parties, see Office of the UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees 2012 – In search of solidarity, OUP 2012, pp.110-2, and European Network on Statelessness, Statelessness determination and the Protection Status of Stateless persons, 2013 <http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/Statelessness%20determina tion%20and%20the%20protection%20status%20of%20stateless%20persons%20ENG.pdf> accessed 28 July 2014. 5 U.N.T.S, vol.360, p.117. 6 U.N.T.S., vol.989, p.175. 7 Introductory Note by the Office of the UNHCR on the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, – available at http://www.unhcr.org/3bbb286d8.html. For a full analysis of both instruments, see UNHCR Handbook 1 1