children. Apart from the misery caused to the people themselves, the effect of marginalizing whole groups of people across generations may severely affect the balanced integration in society and may represent a source of conflict. 2.4 UNHCR’s engagement with statelessness UNHCR has been involved in statelessness issues and with stateless persons since it began operations in 1950. The organization is mandated by the United Nations to protect refugees and to help them find solutions to their plight, and many of the refugees assisted throughout the years have also been stateless.37 Indeed, over the past several decades, the link between the loss or denial of national protection and the loss or denial of nationality has been well established. It is also now generally understood that possession of an effective nationality and the ability to exercise the rights inherent to nationality help to prevent involuntary and coerced displacements of persons.38 Over the years, UNHCR’s role in helping to reduce the incidence of statelessness and in assisting stateless persons has expanded. UNHCR is neither explicitly mentioned in the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons nor in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. However, the UN General Assembly has designated UNHCR as the appropriate body to examine the cases of persons who claim the benefit of the Convention and assist them in presenting their claim to the authorities under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention of the Reduction of Statelessness39 and recognized UNHCR more generally as the UN institution with an international protection mandate for stateless persons.40 The organisation’s responsibilities towards statelessness issues and stateless persons were elaborated by UN General Assembly resolutions41 and through the recommendations of the organisation’s own advisory body, the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme (ExCom).42 The UN General Assembly resolutions which set out UNHCR’s mandate on statelessness are universal in scope and do not restrict UNHCR’s activities to State Parties to either the 1954 Convention or the 1961 Convention. UNHCR’s statelessness mandate covers all situations of statelessness. 26 37 Paragraph 6(A) (II) of UNHCR’s Statute and article 1(A) (2) of the 1951 Convention refers to stateless persons who meet the criteria of the refugee definition. 38 See UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/50/152 (21 Dec. 1995). 39 UN General Assembly resolutions 3274 (XXIX),10 December 1974, and A/RES/31/36, 30 Nov. 1976. 40 UNHCR’s Role in Supervising International Protection Standards in the Context of its Mandate, Keynote Speech delivered by Volker Türk at York University (Toronto) Conference in May 2010, available at: www.unhcr.org/4bf406a56.html. See Article 33 of the 1954 Convention: the SecretaryGeneral is nominally mentioned but in practice this is to be read as UNHCR; see further UN General Assembly resolutions A/RES/49/169 (para. 20); A/RES/50/152 (para. 14, where it was clarified that UNHCR’s activities on behalf of stateless persons are part of the office’s statutory function of providing international protection, and para. 15); A/RES/61/137 (Para. 4). 41 UN General Assembly resolutions: A/RES/51/75, (12 Dec. 1996), A/RES/53/125 (9 Dec. 1998), A/RES/54/146 (17 Dec. 1999), A/RES/55/74 (4 Dec. 2000), A/RES/55/153 (12 Dec. 2000), A/ RES/56/137 (19 Dec. 2001), A/RES/57/187 (18 Dec. 2002), A/RES/58/151 (22 Dec. 2003), A/ RES/59/34 (2 Dec. 2004), A/RES/59/170 (20 Dec. 2004), A/RES/60/129 (16 Dec. 2005), A/ RES/61/137 (19 Dec. 2006), A/RES/62/124 (18 Dec. 2007), A/RES/63/118 (11 Dec. 2008), A/ RES/63/148 (18 Dec. 2008), A/RES/64/127 (18 Dec. 2009), and A/RES/65/194 (21 Dec. 2010). 42 The Executive Committee of the programme of the High Commissioner is composed of representatives from countries – 79 countries as of May 2011 – selected by ECOSOC on the basis Mapping statelessness