Legal briefing on the rights of stateless Palestinians in the UK September 2025 their needs generally and in some cases is unable to do so at all’.95 It held that, for example, the inability of UNRWA to provide wheelchair access and special needs teachers at a school to meet the needs of a Palestinian child with severe medical conditions, meant that the cessation of assistance was beyond the control of the applicant. Assistance from UNRWA was also held to have ceased for the child’s mother. The judge assessed the circumstances in relation to the date of the hearing and the date on which they left Lebanon, noting the deterioration of circumstances in Lebanon since they left.96 It is also worth noting that the UK courts have acknowledged the ‘great weight’ that must be attached to arguments of UNHCR given its ‘special expertise’ in the field of asylum law and statelessness.97 Finally, both regional and domestic jurisprudence regarding Article 1D have ignored the impact of UNCCP’s non-operational status on the interpretation of Article 1D. In light of the drafting history and given the purpose this provision was intended to fulfil, it has been argued that the cessation of ‘protection or assistance’ under Article 1D should be interpreted to mean that the cessation of either protection or assistance to Palestinian refugees should trigger the inclusion clause of Article 1D on a general scale.98 Such an interpretation would be in line with the purpose of Article 1D to provide Palestinian refugees with the same level of protection (in the sense of durable solutions and immediate assistance) as refugees falling within the scope of Article 1A(2).99 However, neither CJEU jurisprudence nor UNHCR guidance adopts this approach. 2.2. Protection under Article 1A(2) and human rights-based claims Where an applicant does not fall within the scope of Article 1D, they may qualify as a refugee under Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention based on a well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention reason. A Palestinian applicant may also be able to claim a human rights-based protection under Article 3 (the prohibition of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment) and Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) ECHR, which may be made at the same stage as claims based on the Refugee Convention. 2.2.1. Establishing persecution Several courts have recognised Palestinians as refugees under Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention on the basis of a well-founded fear of persecution linked to ‘race’ and ‘nationality’. In July 2025, the French National Court of Asylum (CNDA) ruled that Palestinians fleeing Gaza who are not registered with UNRWA meet the definition of a refugee under Article 1A(2) due to a fear of persecution on the basis of 'nationality'. The case concerned a mother and her minor son who had fled Gaza and had entered France by way of consular passes. The applicants were not registered with, nor eligible to receive assistance from UNRWA, and thus applied for international protection under Article 1A(2) (as opposed to Article 1D). The Court considered the acts of Israeli 95 AB and NB (fn 55) para 44. ibid, paras 28, 47, 35. 97 UK High Court of Justice, Asylum Aid, R (on the application of) v SSHD [2025] EWHC 316 (Admin) (14 February 2025), para 81; UK Supreme Court, R (AAA (Syria) and others) v SSHD [2023] UKSC 42 (15 November 2023), paras 63-71. 98 BADIL, Closing Protection Gaps (fn 5), introduction and Ch 5, S 2.2. See also Susan Akram, ‘UNRWA and Palestine Refugees’ in The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (eds C. Costello, M. Foster, and J. McAdam, OUP, June 2021); and Bianchini, Protecting Stateless Persons (fn 71) 90-92. 99 The fact that displaced Palestinians were refugees was widely acknowledged by UN delegates at the time the Refugee Convention was drafted. This is why Article 1D contains an automatic (‘ipso facto’) inclusion clause. See BADIL, Closing Protection Gaps (fn 5), preface; and see Susan Akram, ‘Palestinian Refugees and their Legal Status: Rights, Politics, and Implications for a Just Solution’, in Journal of Palestine Studies XXXI, no. 3 (Spring 2002), 36-51, 40. 96 22