ANNEX A: SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 1) Canada should incorporate the definition of “stateless persons” from Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention into the IRPA and Citizenship Act. 2) Canada should establish a statelessness determination procedure for identifying stateless persons in Canada. 3) Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Immigration and Refugee Board should publically disclose all policy guidelines, if any, which its officers and Members use in assessing a person’s statelessness. This includes how officers and Members gather and assess evidence of statelessness. Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Immigration and Refugee Board should also disclose how its officers and Members are trained in identifying persons as stateless. 4) Canada should implement a “stateless person status”, similar to “protected person status”. The “stateless person status” should allow persons identified as stateless to be eligible for work, social housing, education, public healthcare and social assistance, etc. In addition, such a status should provide stateless persons with expedited access to permanent resident status, and ultimately, Canadian citizenship. 5) Further research should be conducted on stateless persons in Canada. The research should survey stateless persons, legal practitioners, community workers and academics. In particular, the research should seek to gather information on stateless persons’ demographic profile, their unique legal history while in Canada, as well as the “practical” obstacles stateless persons experience in exercising their rights under the Canadian legal framework and the 1954 Convention. 6) Develop a statelessness litigation strategy for Canada, similar to the European Network on Statelessness’ Strategic Litigation: An Obligation for Statelessness Determination under the European Convention on Human Rights. 7) Further research should be conducted on the following matters, in order to confirm that the Canadian legal framework concerning “personal status” is compatible with Article 12 of the 1954 Convention: • The age of majority • The rights of persons under age • Capacity of married women • The instances when a person may lose legal capacity • Divorce • Recognition and adoption of children • The powers of parents over their children and mutual rights to support • The mutual rights of spouses to property • Who succeeds whom 116