set out in the 1954 Convention. Whilst a number of provisions of international human rights law replicate rights found in the 1954 Convention, others provide for a higher standard of treatment or for rights not found in the Convention at all.67 Moreover, human rights norms are often linked to an extensive interpretative guidance by human rights judicial or quasi-judicial bodies. Examples of important human rights standards in this area can be found in the CEDAW, which provides that States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality,68 while the CRC and the ICCPR both provide for the right of every child to acquire a nationality.69 3.2 National legal framework Despite the European Union’s recent pledge to the United Nations,70 Poland is still not a party to the UN Statelessness Conventions71 and has no statelessness determination procedure in place. Polish legislation, nevertheless, states that a stateless person is considered a foreigner under Article 3(2) of the Act on Foreigners.72 The potential procedures involving nationality assessment are primarily those taking place in the displacement context, namely the asylum and return procedures. Additionally, Polish legislation explicitly provides for a Polish Identity Document for stateless persons. As such, the procedure for granting a Polish Identity Document requires establishing that a person concerned is indeed stateless. Therefore, the procedures for granting such a document have been considered for the purposes of this report as well. The Act on Foreigners provides for residence permits for foreigners. These include a temporary residence permit for the purpose of employment, entrepreneurship, study, academic research, family reunification, a residence permit issued to victims of trafficking under extraordinary circumstances, a permanent residence permit and a long-term EU residence permit. The general precondition for applying for these types of residence permits is a legal stay on the territory of Poland and a valid travel document. As there is an exemption concerning the travel document and in special circumstances foreigners may present another identity document, stateless persons may apply for a Polish Identity Document. However, the prerequisite of legal stay remains a major obstacle for stateless persons. They are treated as foreigners but have no possibility of obtaining a passport from their “country of origin” or a visa allowing their legal entry and stay. However, Poland periodically carries out so-called “amnesty” campaigns enabling those staying illegally for significant periods of time to apply for a temporary residence permit and regularize their stay. The last amnesty (or “abolition” according to the wording used by the Polish authorities) was conducted 67 Ibid, paras. 140-141. Additionally, for an overview, see UNHCR, Extracts relating to nationality and statelessness from selected universal and regional human rights instruments, November 2009, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4c29aec02.html. 68 Article 9 of the CEDAW. 69 Article 7 of the CRC and Article 24 of the ICCPR. 70 The pledge was made by the European Union on 24 September 2012 at the High-level Meeting on the Rule of Law: “The EU Member States which have not yet done so pledge to address the issue of statelessness by ratifying the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and by considering the ratification of the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness”. 71 Poland is one of only four EU Members States that are not party to the 1954 Convention and seven that are not party to the 1961 Convention (as at 15 July 2019). 72 Available at: https://bit.ly/2knnun7. UNHCR POLAND, SEPTEMBER 2019 27