In the following, the rights of stateless persons as provided by the international legal framework will be addressed and compared to the standards provided within the national legal system. This includes a description of administrative and judicial procedures in which the determination of statelessness may take place, even though these procedures do not have the establishment of statelessness as a specific aim.89 3.2 National legal framework Finland is a party to the 1954 Convention90 to which it acceded at the same time with the 1951 Refugee Convention. Finland made seven reservations to the 1954 Convention at the time of accession: nn A general reservation with regard to more favourable treatment for the nationals of the other Nordic Countries (i.e. Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden); while Finland committed to accord stateless person the same treatment as to aliens generally; Finland explained that such treatment would not be affected by possible more favourable treatment to the nationals of the Nordic countries. nn Article 7(2): Finland stated that it would not generally grant stateless persons exemption from legislative reciprocity. nn Article 8 regarding exemptions from exceptional measures: Finland stated that the article shall not be binding on Finland. nn Article 12(1): Finland stated that the convention would not have an impact on the provisions of private international law, which were currently in force in Finland (i.e. if in conflict with private international law, a stateless person would not be governed by the country of his domicile or residence). This reservation was however removed in 1970.91 nn Article 24(1)b and (3): With this reservation, Finland rejected the responsibility to provide social security to stateless persons lawfully residing on its territory, on the same level as to nationals; nn Article 25: Finland made a reservation concerning the responsibility to grant documents in the place of the authorities of a foreign country, if the documentary records necessary for the delivery of such certificate do not exist in Finland; nn Article 28: Finland made a reservation not accepting the obligation to issue specific travel documents to stateless persons lawfully residing in its territory. Finland concluded that instead, it considered the practice of issuing Aliens passports for such purposes useful. Finland would however, accept travel documents issued to stateless persons in accordance with this provision by other Contracting States. The general reservation with regard to more favourable treatment for the nationals of other Nordic countries refers to the general obligation under Article 7 (1) of the 1954 Convention to accord the same treatment to stateless persons as to aliens generally. The obligation has been explained further by Nemiah Robertson in his commentary on the 1954 Convention: “The reference ‘to aliens generally’ is that to foreigners who do not enjoy any specific privileges, either on the basis of the domestic law of the given country or on that of an international agreement between the home state of the foreigner and the state of his residence. In other words, the ‘treatment accorded to aliens generally’ is the least favourable treatment which foreigners enjoy in the country of the residence of the stateless person.”92 26 89 UNHCR, Handbook for Protection of Stateless Persons, para 57. 90 FTS 80/1968. 91 FTS 56/1970. 92 UNHCR, Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Its History and Interpretation, A Commentary by Nehemiah Robinson, 1997, http://www.refworld.org/docid/4785f03d2.html MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN FINL AND