UNHCR Field Offices are on a daily basis actually required to make findings about the nationality, or lack thereof, of applicants for refugee status and to issue the persons concerned with a refugee or asylum seeker certificate declaring their nationality status. Similarly, there is no reason in principle why UNHCR cannot conduct statelessness determination outside the context of RSD. Such statelessness determination of course has to be based on evidence as to the status of the persons concerned under the municipal law of the State(s) whose nationality is at issue, and as the case may be might only be made after directly consulting that State(s), but the fact remains that it is UNHCR that makes the determination. The Office has recently made this clear in a Strategy Note on statelessness issued in March 2010: In some circumstances it may be necessary that UNHCR assesses whether or not a person is stateless. As in refugee status determination, UNHCR can assess, whether to the Office’s knowledge, a person is stateless or possesses a specific nationality.176 Hence, the above considerations concerning the determination of nationality status by States apply equally to the determination of nationality status by UNHCR. 7.3 Questions of statelessness As noted above, persons with respect to whom a particular State’s nationality is at issue may either be outside or inside that State. a) Persons outside the State whose nationality is at issue: i) ii) iii) If the persons are found to be nationals of the State concerned, they will fall within the traditional conception of de facto statelessness discussed in Part I above if they are found to be refugees or are otherwise unable or, for valid reasons,177 unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that State. If the persons are found not to be nationals of the State concerned, they will be de jure stateless if they do not have the nationality of another State.178 If nationality inquiries are ongoing with the State concerned, the question whether the persons are de jure or de facto stateless cannot yet be answered. However, inquiries should not be allowed to drag on indefinitely, with no answer in sight. For example, as recommended by the Council of Europe in 2009 in its Recommendation on the Nationality of Children, States should “register children as being of unknown or undetermined nationality, or classify children’s nationality as being ‘under investigation’ only for as short a period as possible”.179 It is therefore concluded that the case of persons outside the State whose nationality is at issue does not raise any questions of de facto statelessness that go beyond the traditional conception of de facto statelessness. 176 177 178 179 UNHCR, “UNHCR Action to Address Statelessness: A Strategy Note”, Division of International Protection, March 2010, para. 54. See further the discussion on “valid reasons” in section 11.3 below. Note also point 1 of the submission on p. 50 above. Principle 8 of Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)13 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 9 December 2009. 52