E) Treatment of de facto stateless persons 11. While de facto stateless persons are covered by international human rights law, there is no specific treaty regime addressing the international protection needs of those who do not fall within the universal and regional refugee protection instruments. Certain recommendations as to the treatment of de facto stateless persons have been made in the Final Acts of the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions 9 and in Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)13 on the Nationality of Children adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 10 F) De facto stateless persons and UNHCR’s mandate 12. The extent to which de facto stateless persons who do not fall within its refugee mandate qualify for the Office’s protection and assistance is largely determined by UNHCR’s mandate to prevent statelessness. It was noted that unresolved situations of de facto statelessness, in particular over two or more generations, may lead to de jure statelessness. 9 The Final Act of the 1961 Convention “Recommends that persons who are stateless de facto should as far as possible be treated as stateless de jure to enable them to acquire an effective nationality”. Note that the Recommendation in the Final Act of the 1954 Convention does not apply to all de facto stateless persons, but only to those persons who are de facto stateless because they are considered as having valid reasons for renouncing the protection of the State of which they are a national. 10 The Recommendation reads as follows “With a view to reducing statelessness of children, facilitating their access to a nationality and ensuring their right to a nationality, member states should: […] 7. treat children who are factually (de facto) stateless, as far as possible, as legally stateless (de jure) with respect to the acquisition of nationality. 8