Part I. Introduction and Context replaced the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR) – a refugee agency that had been founded outside of the LoN system in 1938 in view of the intensifying refugee challenge.397 IRO was a temporary UN agency (to complete its activities in 1950), designed to help European refugees.398 Both the IRO and the IGCR were basically tasked with “providing material assistance, and identifying and negotiating political solutions, such as repatriation and resettlement, not with creating a legal framework to impose legal obligations on states vis-à-vis refugees and stateless persons”.399 To gain more insight in the issue of statelessness, nonetheless, studies were undertaken. Already in 1946, the IGCR looked at statelessness and some of its causes in Europe, noting that the issue was widespread and that international action was needed.400 More importantly, with a resolution of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1948401, a study regarding statelessness was commissioned to gain a better understanding of the issue and to investigate the desirability of further international agreements on the matter.402 The study, prepared by the Secretary-General, gives an overview of relevant legal instruments and addresses both the improvement of the status of stateless people and the elimination of statelessness. Importantly, it recommends the drafting of a new treaty regarding statelessness in cooperation with the IRO.403 When the IRO was about to expire, tensions around the world and in the context of the Cold War proved that refugees were not a temporary issue that the international community had to face.404 At the same time, the IRO had been unable to really complete its activities as thousands of people remained displaced in Europe. In December 1949, it was therefore decided to establish a new organization for refugees: UNHCR405, which would later play an important role with regard to the Statelessness Conventions.406 After the establishment of UNHCR, a number of legal instruments on refugees and the stateless were developed as we saw in paragraph 1.5.1, which considered the content of these instruments. Here, the background to these documents is considered. After the UN study of statelessness, an Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems was established. They agreed that there was a need for an international treaty for the protection of refugees and stateless people, but some members pressed for separate 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 74 See also Michelle Foster & Hélène Lambert, International Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons (Oxford University Press 2019) 24–25. On the IRO see for instance also UNCHR, The State of the World’s Refugees 2000. Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action (UNHCR/Oxford University Press 2000) ch 1. Michelle Foster & Hélène Lambert, International Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons (Oxford University Press 2019) 25–26. IGCR, ‘Statelessness and Some of its Causes: An Outline’ (1946 Memorandum). ECOSOC Res 116 (VI) D (1948) Resolutions adopted by the Economic and Social Council during its Sixth Session (2 February to 11 March 1948) 18. UN Department of Social Affairs, A Study of Statelessness (1949, E/1112/ Add. 1). Ibid. UNCHR, The State of the World’s Refugees 2000. Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action (UNHCR/Oxford University Press 2000) 17–19. UNGA Res 319 (IV) (3 December 1949) UN Doc A/RES/319(IV). See para 1.5.1. Intersentia