Article 11 provides for “a body to which a person claiming the benefit of this Convention may apply for the examination of his claim and for assistance in presenting it to the appropriate authority” within the U.N. The final version of the article adopted by the Commission provided for the creation of an agency to act on behalf of stateless persons and a tribunal competent to decide on any disputes between parties as well as to hear complaints presented by the agency on behalf of stateless individuals. The idea of a tribunal faced overwhelming opposition from the plenipotentiaries, so an article was inserted to take a conflicting case to the International Court of Justice instead. The agency acting on behalf of the stateless persons remained in Article 11, but a reservation clause was admitted for this Article. The Article 11 agency was to be established after the sixth instrument of ratification was deposited. This was the condition for the Convention to come into force (Article 18 (1)). After receiving six ratifications to the Convention in 1974, the Secretary-General acted under Article 20(2) to call attention of the General Assembly for the establishment of an agency to assist stateless persons. In so doing, the Secretary-General suggested that this agency should be established within the framework of the UNHCR, citing supporting factors such as the organization’s experience with stateless persons and the discussion in the Conference of Plenipotentiaries. Members of the Soviet bloc opposed this idea, so a compromise was reached for the UNHCR to be charged with the responsibilities of the Article 11 agency on a provisional basis, which would be reviewed at a later date. The General Assembly reviewed the provisionally allocated duties two years later in 1976, and requested the UNHCR to continue to perform these functions as the Article 11 agency. 62 In 1996, the General Assembly, following an Executive Committee’s conclusion, requested the UNHCR to continue its activities on behalf of stateless persons, actively promote accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and also “provide relevant technical and advisory services pertaining to the preparation and implementation of nationality legislation.”63 Despite action from the UNHCR, only 34 states have become signatories of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness as of November 1, 2007.64 However, similar to the case of the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions relating to the 62 UN GA Res. 3274 (XXIX). 10 December 1974; UN GA Res.31/36, 30 November 1976. For details of the circumstances between the two resolutions, see Bachelor, supra note 16, 252-56. 63 UN GA Res.50/152, 9 February 1996 64 http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=3ae6b39620&page=search. 26