Chapter 1. Introduction For stateless populations in situ, however, targeted nationality campaigns or nationality verification efforts would be more appropriate.35 But no matter in what context statelessness occurs, nationality (eventually) would be seen as the solution. The focus in this book is on preventing and solving statelessness. These terms are often encountered in law, literature and reports on statelessness and can be distinguished from the notions of ‘reduction’ of statelessness and ‘protection’ and ‘identification’ of stateless people, which are also used in this context.36 The 1961 Convention is on the reduction of statelessness and includes both norms that aim to prevent and solve statelessness in different contexts. However, the 1954 Convention also includes a norm on solving statelessness: Article 32, which concerns facilitated naturalization of stateless people. At the same time, UNHCR uses prevention and reduction of statelessness, as well as the protection and identification of stateless people to delineate their mandate. It is therefore important to define here how preventing and solving statelessness are used in this study. The goal of this research is to analyze European law on preventing and solving statelessness. This can include any legal norm that helps us to ensure that less persons become or remain stateless. From this perspective, the notion of ‘reducing statelessness’ can therefore include both the prevention of and the solutions to statelessness.37 As a general rule, the specific rights that stateless people can enjoy after being identified as stateless (protection as a stateless person) and ways to ensure this identification (identification of stateless people) are not the primary object of study. However, it is acknowledged that these lines cannot be easily drawn and they are therefore not applied too strictly. Throughout this research preventing and solving statelessness are the focus. In some contexts, identification also is a prerequisite for preventing and solving statelessness; if you do not know about (possible) statelessness, how can you hope to prevent or solve it? As also explained in paragraph 1.4.3 of this chapter, identification has a link with both nationality and statelessness and therefore has relevance to this research. All four UNHCR ‘pillars’ on statelessness – identification, prevention, reduction and protection – are thus covered in some way in this study, but only to the extent that they contribute to reducing statelessness in Europe as defined above. In addition to these four ‘pillars’, it is also important to be reminded of the impact of statelessness and of the powerlessness in the democratic and political sense. Without 35 36 37 UNHCR, ‘Handbook on the Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons’ (Geneva, 2014) para 58–61 <www.unhcr.org/protection/ statelessness/53b698ab9/handbook-protection-stateless-persons.html> accessed 22 August 2021. Eg UNHCR, ‘Statelessness: An Analytical Framework for Prevention, Reduction and Protection’ (2008) <www.refworld.org/docid/49a28afb2.html> accessed 22 August 2021. Note that UNHCR’s mandate on statelessness includes four ‘categories’ of activities: identification, prevention, reduction and protection, see UNHCR ExCom, ‘Conclusion on Identification, Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection of Stateless Persons’, No. 106 (LVII) (6 October 2006); UNGA Res 61/137 (2006) A/RES/61/137. Th is deviates to some extent from the use of these words in the UNHCR mandate, in which ‘reduction’ is used to refer to solving existing situations of statelessness. Here, the term ‘reducing’ or ‘reduction’ is used in a broader sense, more in line with what the 1961 Convention seems to suggest. Intersentia 13