2. State of statelessness in Poland 2.1 Background 2.1.1 National legal framework at a glance Poland is neither a party to the 1954 Convention nor to the 1961 Convention. In August 2012, the new Act on Polish Citizenship of 2009 entered into force.33 In line with Article 32 of the 1954 Convention and Article 34 of the 1951 Convention, the law provides for the shortening of the residence requirement for naturalization for refugees and stateless persons from ten to two years. Polish legislation is partially in line with the obligations under the 1954 and 1961 Conventions. Amendments to the legislation in force would be required to ensure full compliance with international standards. One of the major gaps, as will be further discussed below, relates to the possibility for all children born in Poland, who would otherwise be stateless, to acquire Polish citizenship, as per Article 1 of the 1961 Convention. The Law on Polish Citizenship, in Article 14(2), grants automatic nationality only to children born stateless to unknown or stateless parents, or to parents whose citizenship cannot be determined. However, the Law does not foresee a safeguard against statelessness at birth if a child is born to parents whose nationality is known, but who cannot transfer their nationality to the child. In addition, the Law on Polish Citizenship does not have a clear safeguard against statelessness for children who loose Polish nationality following their parents’ renunciation of citizenship as per Articles 7 and 8, and thus is at variance with Article 6 of the 1961 Convention. The population of stateless persons in Poland mainly consists of foreigners who came with USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) or Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia passports and stayed in Poland at the time of the dissolution of their states. There is a small group of Palestinians who started arriving to Poland in the 1970s, some for study purposes and others for work. There are also those stateless persons who applied for the refugee status in Poland, coming from a range of counties but without the possibility of confirming their nationality. 33 16 Act of 2 May 2009 on the Polish Citizenship, Journal of Laws 2012, Item 161. MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN POLAND