III. Background and mandates Mandates United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR UNHCR’s responsibilities for stateless persons begin with refugees who are stateless under the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, paragraph 6(A) (II), and Article 1(A) (2) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, both of which refer to stateless persons who meet the criteria of the refugee definition. UNHCR’s mandated responsibilities concerning statelessness were expanded following the adoption of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. General Assembly resolutions 3274 (XXIV) and 31/36 designated UNHCR as the body mandated to examine the cases of persons who claim the benefit of the 1961 Convention, and to assist such persons in presenting their claims to the appropriate national authorities.15 Subsequently, the UN General Assembly conferred upon UNHCR a global mandate for the identification, prevention and reduction of statelessness and for the international protection of stateless persons.16 This mandate has continued to evolve as the UN General Assembly endorsed the conclusions of the UNHCR Executive Committee, notably Conclusion No. 106 (2006) on “Identification, Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection of Stateless Persons”.17 The UN General Assembly resolutions which set out UNHCR’s mandate on statelessness are universal in scope and do not restrict UNHCR’s activities to States party to either the 1954 Convention or the 1961 Convention. The mandate is not limited to addressing known situations of statelessness. It also includes the prevention of statelessness, meaning that UNHCR works to identify and address risks of statelessness, which may affect a broad cross-section of the population. UNHCR’s statelessness mandate covers all situations of statelessness. There is some overlap between UNHCR’s statelessness mandate and its refugee mandate when stateless persons also meet the criteria that define a refugee under the 1951 Refugee Convention. When refugee status ceases, 22