DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS Resolution 1 of the Final Act of the 1961 Statelessness Convention “recommends that persons who are stateless de facto should as far as possible be treated as stateless de jure to enable them to acquire an effective nationality.”35 The UNHCR Handbook recommends that “States are encouraged to provide protection to de facto stateless persons in addition to 1954 Convention stateless persons.”36 All persons are protected by the broader human rights regime. Statelessness Status Determination: As described by Section 2 of Department Circular No. 58 “Establishing the Refugee and Stateless Status Determination Procedure,” Statelessness Status Determination is “a fair, speedy and non-adversarial procedure to facilitate identification, treatment and protection of…stateless persons consistent with the laws, international commitments, and humanitarian traditions and concerns of the Republic of the Philippines.”37 Government officials might encounter the question of whether a person is stateless in a range of contexts, and status determination will be necessary in response to a range of judicial and administrative procedures. For example: determining nationality and statelessness status may be necessary in the provision of documentation, including identity documents; when seeking access to government services; and when pursuing legal residence, employment in the public sector, or exercising the right to vote, among other rights. The question of nationality and statelessness also often arises when an individual’s right to be in a country is challenged in removal procedures. Generally speaking, an assessment of statelessness will also be necessary where a person seeks the application of the safeguards set out in the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions. While States do sometimes register a person as being of unknown or undetermined nationality, “such a classification is only reasonable as a transitory measure during a brief period of time” while a timely statelessness status determination process is scheduled.38 Establishing a determination procedure and granting legal status to stateless persons is part Final Act of the United Nations Conference on the Elimination or Reduction of Future Statelessness held at Geneva from 24 March to 18 April 1959, and Resolutions I, II, III and IV of the Conference, concluded at New York on 30 August 1961, available at: https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3ae6b39620.pdf. 35 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, Para. 124, 30 June 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/ docid/53b676aa4.html. 36 37 Department Circular 58, Section 2. Council of Europe: Committee of Ministers, Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)13 and explanatory memorandum of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the nationality of children, 9 May 2009, CM/Rec(2009)13, available at: https://www.refworld. org/docid/4dc7bf1c2.html (“A borderline case of de jure and de facto statelessness exists if authorities register a person as being of unknown or undetermined nationality, or classify the nationality of a person as being “under investigation.” Such classification is only reasonable as a transitory measure during a brief period of time. This is in line with the spirit, for example, of Article 8 of the Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to State succession, requesting states to lower the burden of proof. It urges states to implement their obli-gations under international law by not indefinitely leaving the nationality status of an individual as undetermined.”). 38 UNHCR / April 2021 17