Statelessness Determination Procedures determination of statelessness. Instead, when confronted with cases of statelessness, it relies on its RSD procedure set out in the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons Act (‘NCFRMI Act’). 92 This leads to incorrect decisions, due the confusion between RSD criteria and standards for determining statelessness. Realising that the NCFRMI Act is not tailored towards protection, identification and prevention of statelessness, the Government of Nigeria, as a result of repeated advocacy and technical support from UNHCR, has taken some steps towards developing a framework on statelessness. In this regard, in 2016, the Government of Nigeria, with the support of UNHCR and other key stakeholders, drafted a National Plan of Action (‘NPA’) on statelessness. Although this NPA is not yet approved by the Federal Executive Council, it is a step in the right direction for Nigeria, especially as it makes provision for the establishment of a determination procedure for Nigeria. 93 In October 2019, at the UNHCR High-Level Segment on Statelessness held in Geneva, Nigeria pledged to develop an SDP to identify stateless persons, grant protection status and facilitate appropriate solutions. 94 In 2015, an application for refugee status case involving a ‘Georgian’ woman was presented before the Refugee Eligibility Committee in Nigeria. The woman, now in her late 50s, had come to Nigeria in the 1980s, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time she came to Nigeria, the Republic of Georgia was part of the Soviet Union (‘USSR’), and all her national documents were Soviet documents. With no SDP in place, her application was brought under the RSD procedure. Thereafter, she was granted refugee status by the RSD Eligibility Committee on the grounds that she had no home country to return to, as the USSR no longer existed, a reason which in fact did not meet the requirements prescribed in the 1951 Refugee Convention. The Eligibility Committee also considered, arguably wrongly, that she was unable to prove her Georgian nationality, and therefore did not recognise her as Georgian. 95 The outcome of this case would have been different if Nigeria had an SDP in place. Instead of being recognised as a refugee, the woman would have gone through an SDP and be granted statelessness status, which in turn would have facilitated her naturalisation. In line with international standards, it is recommended that Nigeria take further steps to domesticate the 1954 Convention and the 1961 Convention. In particular, it should develop a determination procedure formalised in law, similar to what it has done with the 1951 Refugee Convention, 96 as this will ensure fairness, 92 93 94 95 96 Decree 52 of 1989 (Nigeria). This law is now Chapter 21 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (‘NCFRMI Act’). Action 5 of the unpublished draft National Plan of Action (‘NPA’), updated in 2018, provides for the establishment of a determination procedure for Nigeria: National Action Plan to End Statelessness — Nigeria (Unpublished, 2018) 15–17 (‘NPA’). A copy of the updated plan was obtained and discussed in the course of this research with an official of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre in June 2019. See ‘Results of the High-Level Segment on Statelessness’ UNHCR (Web Page, October 2019) <https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/results-of-the-high-level-segment-on-statelessness/>. This example was cited in an interview with an official of the Refugee Status Determination (‘RSD’) at the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (‘NCFRMI’) during the course of this research. We contacted the Official with the aim of finding out if there had been any known statelessness case brought before the Refugee Eligibility Committee in Nigeria. Nigeria domesticated the 1951 Refugee Convention (n 36) and its 1967 Protocol through the NCFRMI Act, wherein the two Conventions were added as annexes. 102