5 The determination of statelessness and the establishment of a statelessness-specific protection regime G á bor Gyulai The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954 Convention) obliges states parties to provide protection to those who are not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.1 An effective statelessness determination mechanism is an indispensable pre-condition of any effort aimed at the protection of stateless persons, or to put it simply: in order to implement protection measures in favour of a certain population, one has to know who the people concerned are. It is, therefore, striking to learn that at the time of writing only a handful of countries (representing less than 10 per cent of all states parties to the 1954 Convention) have established a specific legal mechanism dedicated to both the identification and protection of stateless persons. In recent decades, the already rather limited public and professional debate on statelessness has tended to focus on the avoidance and reduction of this phenomenon, keeping the protection aspect of statelessness in the shadows. This is an area that deserves far greater attention. Thus, drawing in particular on empirical examples, this chapter outlines the main features and challenges of statelessness-specific protection mechanisms, with an emphasis on the determination of statelessness.2 In addition, the chapter proposes a structured framework for understanding and classifying national ‘protection environments’ stateless persons presently face in different countries. 1 2 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, New York, 28 September 1954, in force 6 June 1960, 360 UNTS 117, Art. 1. Most empirical experiences are, at the time of writing, related to European states. The dominance of European examples of state practice in the present chapter is due to this fact and does not, by any means, indicate disregard of relevant developments in other parts of the world. 116 9781107032446c05_p116-143.indd 116 6/16/2014 3:11:58 PM