under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”).39 In fact, since statelessness is a juridically relevant fact under international law, it is difficult to foresee how Canada can meet its international human rights obligations towards stateless persons without establishing a determination procedure or mechanism that identifies them.40 IV. Recommendations 1) Canada should incorporate the definition of “stateless persons” from Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention into the IRPA and Citizenship Act. 2) Canada should establish a statelessness determination procedure for identifying stateless persons in Canada. 3) Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Immigration and Refugee Board should publically disclose all policy guidelines, if any, which its officers and Members use in assessing a person’s statelessness. This includes how officers and Members gather and assess evidence of statelessness. Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Immigration and Refugee Board should also disclose how its officers and Members are trained in identifying persons as stateless. 4) Canada should implement a “stateless person status”, similar to “protected person status”. The “stateless person status” should allow persons identified as stateless to be eligible for work, social housing, education, public healthcare and social assistance, etc. In addition, such a status should provide stateless persons with expedited access to permanent resident status, and ultimately, Canadian citizenship. 5) Further research should be conducted on stateless persons in Canada. The research should survey stateless persons, legal practitioners, community workers and academics. In particular, the research should seek to gather information on stateless persons’ demographic International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 999, p. 171, at Arts. 2(3), 7, 9(1), available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3aa0.html (entered into force 23 March 1976, accession by Canada 19 May 1976) [ICCPR]. This point is made by analogy. The European Network on Statelessness makes the case that these rights, which are similarly enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, could be violated by the failure of State Parties to implement statelessness determination procedures. See, European Network on Statelessness (Caia Vlieks), Strategic Litigation: An Obligation for Statelessness Determination under the European Convention on Human Rights (September 2014), available at: http://tinyurl.com/ooblywd [Obligation for Statelessness Determination under the ECHR]. Furthermore, the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights has issued an Advisory Opinion explaining that Member States of the Organization of American States (including Canada), and regardless of whether they have ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, have an obligation to establish statelessness determination procedures under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. On this latter point see Advisory Opinion OC-21/14 of August 19, 2014 requested by the Argentine Republic, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay: Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migration and/or in Need of International Protection, OC-21/14, Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACrtHR), 19 August 2014, at paras. 32 & 94-102 available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/54206c744.html. 40 Obligation for Statelessness Determination under the ECHR, ibid. 39 13 13