13 PART ONE PART ONE: CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING STATELESSNESS A. THE DEFINITION 13. Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention sets out the definition of a stateless person as follows: For the purpose of this Convention, the term “stateless person” means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. The Convention does not permit reservations to Article 1(1) and thus this definition is binding on all States Parties to the treaty. In addition, the International Law Commission has concluded that the definition in Article 1(1) is part of customary international law.7 This Handbook does not address Article 1(2) of the 1954 Convention which sets out the circumstances in which persons who fall within the “stateless person” definition are nevertheless excluded from the protection of this treaty. 7 Please see page 49 of the International Law Commission, Articles on Diplomatic Protection with commentaries, 2006, which states that the Article 1 definition can “no doubt be considered as having acquired a customary nature”. The Commentary is accessible at http://www.refworld.org/docid/525e7929d.html. The text of Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention is used in the Articles on Diplomatic Protection to provide a definition of stateless person. 9