IV. Recommendations 16) Further research should be conducted on stateless children in Canada in order to determine whether stateless children are able to exercise their right to free education in accordance with Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 22 of the 1954 Convention. 17) UNHCR should engage the governments of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec on the issue of stateless persons and their ability to access free public education in these jurisdictions. In particular, UNHCR should explain the precarious circumstances of stateless persons in Canada, the practical obstacles they may experience in providing immigration documentation to register children for public education, and that “lawfully admitted” or “lawfully staying” requirements are incompatible with Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 22 of the 1954 Convention. 18) Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec should implement legislative and policy safeguards similar to Ontario, which would guarantee access to free public education for all stateless children regardless of immigration status, documentation, or ability to pay. ARTICLE 23: PUBLIC RELIEF The Contracting States shall accord to stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory the same treatment with respect to public relief and assistance as is accorded to their nationals. I. Background & Commentary Article 23 of the 1954 Convention is identical in wording to Article 23 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. It requires stateless persons to be “lawfully staying” in Canada in order to be entitled to receive treatment as is accorded Canadian nationals. 329 However, when the Ad Hoc Committee for the 1951 Refugee Convention drafted this article, the Committee expressed its understanding that refugees should not be required to meet any conditions of local residence or affiliation which might be required of nationals. Therefore, a similar understanding should apply to stateless persons.330 In terms of a definition of “public relief and assistance”, the commentary on the 1951 Refugee See Article 15 or the Annex for the definition of “lawfully staying” understood by the drafters of the 1954 Convention. Canada has a reservation to Article 23 of the 1951 Refugee Convention with regards to its interpretation of “lawfully staying”. Canada states that “lawfully staying” for the purposes of the 1951 Refugee Convention refers “only to refugees admitted for permanent residence, refugees admitted for temporary residence will be accorded the same treatment with respect to articles 23 and 24 as is accorded visitors generally. For the purpose of the analysis in this report, the definition identified in the travaux préparatoires of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1954 Convention is applied. See UNHCR, “Declarations and Reservations to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees” (1 March 2006), at 6, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/4d934f5f9.pdf [Declarations and Reservations to the 1951 Convention]. 330 Robinson Commentary to the 1954 Convention, supra note 11 at 43-44. 329 69 69