status of persons who may be stateless, and to assist such persons in making claims to the relevant government authorities. Statelessness is also linked to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951). Designed to protect persons fleeing persecution in their own countries, the convention defines persons needing protection, as well as the responsibilities of the states to which they have fled. The convention recognizes that while some refugees may have a nationality, asylum seekers are effectively stateless if they cannot return to the country of their nationality. The legal status of stateless persons, including its ambiguities, thus has important implications for refugees (Bradley, 102-03).4 Operationalizing definitions of “statelessness” has proved difficult. Adjudicators and scholars sometimes refer to those who fall under the definition of a “stateless person” in the 1954 convention as “ de jure” stateless persons, even though that term does not appear in the convention itself. Confusingly, the 1961 convention references “de facto” stateless persons, but without a definition. Nor does one exist in any other international instrument. The ambiguity matters. The UNHCR maintains that persons who are de facto stateless lack the protections guaranteed those otherwise recognized as stateless under the 1954 convention (UNHCR 2014b, 5). The 1961 convention on the Reduction of Statelessness references protection for de jure stateless persons, but it also recommends that persons who are de facto stateless should be protected as well, to enable them to acquire an effective nationality. Thus, statelessness exists as a matter of international law but still does not provide human rights protections to those who are effectively stateless and cannot prove it because of obstructions by officials in states from which they seek proof of 4 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3150558