2. The face of statelessness in Sweden 2.1 Introduction Sweden is a party to both the 1954 Convention and the 1961 Convention, as well as the ECN. Furthermore, Sweden has made a political commitment to end statelessness globally. At the Ministerial Intergovernmental Event on Refugees and Stateless Persons convened by UNHCR in December 2011, Sweden was one of the countries that pledged to address statelessness through foreign policy initiatives, and remove its reservations to the 1954 Convention.24 To date, Sweden maintains reservations to Article 8 (exemption from exceptional measures), Article 12(1) (personal status), and Article 24(1)(b) which is accompanied by the following text: “Notwithstanding the rule concerning the treatment of stateless persons as nationals, Sweden will not be bound to accord to stateless persons the same treatment as is accorded to nationals in respect of the possibility of entitlement to a national pension under the provisions of the National Insurance Act; and likewise to the effect that, in so far as the right to a supplementary pension under the said Act and the computation of such pension in certain respects are concerned, the rules applicable to Swedish nationals shall be more favourable than those applied to other insured persons.” Sweden also maintains its reservation to Article 24(3), and to Article 25(2) with the explanation that “Sweden does not consider itself obliged to cause a Swedish authority, in lieu of a foreign authority, to deliver certificates for the issuance of which there is insufficient documentation in Sweden.” According to the statistics published by the Swedish Population Register and the SMA, Sweden has a relatively large stateless population, consisting of persons who have migrated to Sweden to seek international protection or stay for other reasons, as well as persons born stateless in Sweden. During the past five years, Sweden has received between 28,000 and 163,000 asylum applications per year,25 out of which around 4 per cent to 13 per cent have been lodged by stateless persons (see Table 6 for a breakdown of numbers). Despite this, the issue of statelessness remains largely unknown and unexplored by the national authorities and Swedish civil society. 24 UNHCR, Ministerial Intergovernmental Event on Refugees and Stateless Persons – Pledges 2011, October 2012, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aca6112.html. 25 Asylum applications registered in Sweden 2009-2015: 2015: 162,887; 2014: 81,301; 2013: 54,259; 2012: 43,887; 2011: 29,648; 2010: 31,819; 2009: 24,194. See: http://www.migrationsverket.se/info/790.html. UNHCR STOCKHOLM, 2016 13