141 RPA at §17 (a)(1) (emphasis added). 142 1954 Convention, art. 1(1) (emphasis added). See supra note 27 and accompanying text for an explanation of the meaning of the term “under the operation of its law”. The RPA stateless definition also refers explicitly to an individual who is “de jure” stateless. The use of “de jure stateless” and “under the laws” language in the RPA, to the extent it may be interpreted in a manner that would preclude otherwise stateless individuals from receiving needed protection and status, is problematic. See supra notes 31 – 35 for a discussion on this point. 143 See, e.g., Open Society Institute (OSI), Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study, October 2010, p. 53-54, ISBN: 978-1-936133-29-1, available at: <http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4cf76b192. html> (indicating that nationality laws in Ethiopia are gender neutral on their face but not in practice). 144 See supra note 44 and accompanying text on the 1954 Convention definition of statelessness as customary international law. 145 RPA §17 is entitled “Protection of Stateless Persons in the United States”. 146 A. Guterres and L. Arbour, “The Hidden World of Stateless People”, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (28 November 2007), available at: <http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=4964&LangID=E>. 48 147 Protecting Stateless Persons: the Role of the U.S. Government, remarks made October 30, 2009, available at: <http://m.state.gov/md181119.htm>. 148 This is the only publicly available U.S. Government source of statistical information concerning stateless individuals in the United States. These charts include the number of asylum requests received and the various dispositions that occurred but the dispositions do not necessarily reflect adjudication of the number received during the same fiscal year. Claims pending from previous years may have been adjudicated during any given year while other claims filed more recently or in the current fiscal year were not adjudicated until a later fiscal year. 149 USCIS Asylum Division, Refugees, Asylum, and Parole System (RAPS), July 19, 2011. 150 Statistics for Fiscal Years (FY) 2006 through 2010 were obtained from the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review’s FY 2010 Statistical Yearbook, prepared by the Office of Planning, Analysis, and Technology in January 2011. Statistics for FY 2005 were obtained from the FY 2009 Statistical Yearbook, prepared by the Office of Planning, Analysis, and Technology in January 2010. 151 The numbers of those identified by EOIR as having “no nationality” are in parenthesis next to the number of those identified as “stateless”.