     the UNHCR in 2014, they nonetheless stand in stark contrast to the 147 parties to the Refugee Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol.48 Even by the standards of the low ratification numbers for the two statelessness conventions, the rate of ratification among states in Asia is even more dismal. As in the case of the Refugee Convention, neither treaty concerning statelessness enjoys much support in Asia. Indeed, even for the Refugee Convention, ratification has been low, with only eleven states in Asia having ratified. Subregionally, the accession rate for the Refugee Convention is highest among Central Asian countries, with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan having acceded to the convention. Within South Asia, only Afghanistan has acceded whereas in Southeast Asia, only Cambodia, the Philippines, and Timor Leste are signatories. In East Asia, China, Japan and South Korea have ratified the Refugee Convention. For the 1954 Stateless Convention, only a total of three Asian states have acceded to it, namely South Korea, Turkmenistan, and the Philippines. Notably, this Convention remains applicable to Hong Kong due to initial ratification by the United Kingdom which remains valid as China gave notification that the Convention will continue to apply to Hong Kong after China resumed exercising sovereignty over Hong Kong.49 The accession/ratification rate for the 1961 Stateless Convention is even lower in the region, with only two states in Asia having acceded to it, namely Turkmenistan and the Philippines. One reason commonly given for the low ratification rate for these conventions is the lack of participation among states in Asia in their conception and drafting. As has been observed in relation to the 1954 Stateless Convention, ‘participation in the drafting overwhelmingly came from delegates from Western and colonial powers’.50 Twenty-seven states were represented at the UN Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the 48 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted 28 July 1951, entered into force 22 April 1954) 189 UNTS 137, <https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsII.aspx?src=TREATY& mtdsg_no=V-2&chapter=5&Temp=mtdsg2&clang=_en> accessed 1 April 2024. 49 Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Factsheet: Ratification of the Two UN Statelessness Conventions in the Asia-Pacific Region (The University of Melbourne, December 2022) <https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/4383668/Ratification-of-2-state lessness-conventions_factsheet_Dec_2022.pdf> accessed 12 September 2023. 50 Betsy L. Fisher, ‘The Travaux Préparatoires of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons’ (1 March 2022) xii <https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4037774> accessed 12 September 2023. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009399555.003 Published online by Cambridge University Press