CONVENTION RELATING TO THE STATUS OF STATELESS PERSONS Its History and Interpretation A COMMENTARY by NEHEMIAH ROBINSON INSTITUTE OF JEWISH AFFAIRS World Jewish Congress 1955 Reprinted by the Division of International Protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1997 PREFACE As will be seen from the discussion regarding the preparation of the Convention dealt with in this volume, it was largely modelled on the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (called the Refugee Convention for short): in many instances the relevant articles of the Refugee Convention were taken over bodily by substituting the words “stateless person” for “refugee”. In other instances, however, the text was modified with the result that the treatment accorded stateless persons differs from that of “refugees”. Obviously, Article 1 has no connection with the Refugee Convention at all. Despite the close relationship between the two Conventions, both of them are formally and materially independent international treaties: they apply to different groups of persons and grant divergent benefits to them. On the other hand, the circumstance that many provisions were either taken over from the Refugee Convention or are modified versions thereof makes the understanding of the Convention dependent on an analysis of the relevant articles of the Refugee Convention and of the reasons for the changes. It is for these reasons that the Commentary to this Convention makes frequent references to the discussion on the preparation of the Refugee Convention and deals in greater detail with the genesis of the articles of the present Convention. The Commentary to the Convention contains frequent references to stateless persons, de jure and de facto. These terms were introduced in a study on statelessness which was prepared by the United Nations Secretariat and were used in both conferences. At bottom, however, nationality is a legal concept; therefore de facto statelessness is a somewhat illogical term. Nehemiah Robinson May, 1955 PART ONE THE PREPARATION OF THE CONVENTION As will be seen below, the Convention is for the most part the application to stateless persons of the provisions of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. In order to understand the genesis of this Convention we have thus to refer to the history of the United Nations efforts in the field of legal protection for stateless persons and refugees. The Human Rights Commission, in its second session (December 2-17, 1947), took cognizance of the lack of international agreements relating to the protection of post - Second World War refugees and the necessity for adapting existing conventions to the new conditions created after that war and to the developments of international law under the auspices of the United Nations. As a result, the Human Rights Commission requested the Economic and Social Council to initiate action to the above effect. On March 2, 1948, the Council adopted Resolution 116 (VI) (D), requesting the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations, i.a., to undertake a study of the existing situation in regard to the