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a right of entry to one’s country of nationality.90 It also guarantees the
right of entry, and thus the right to remain, of individuals with special ties
to a State. This includes, for instance, stateless persons long-established
in a State as well as stateless persons who have been stripped of their
nationality in violation of international law or who have been denied
nationality of a State which has acquired through State succession the
territory in which they habitually reside.
Even considering these developments in international human rights law, the
1954 Convention retains its significance as it addresses matters specific to
statelessness that are not addressed elsewhere, notably the provision of
identity papers and travel documents as well as administrative assistance
to stateless persons. Moreover, the provisions of the Convention do not
allow for derogation in times of public emergency unlike some human
rights treaties and it sets out a number of standards that are more generous
than their counterparts under human rights law.91
90
Please see Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 27 (Freedom of Movement),
CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9, 2 November 1999, http://www.refworld.org/docid/45139c394.html
paragraph 20: The wording of article 12, paragraph 4, does not distinguish between
nationals and aliens (“no one”). Thus, the persons entitled to exercise this right can be
identified only by interpreting the meaning of the phrase “his own country”. The scope of
“his own country” is broader than the concept “country of his nationality”. It is not limited to
nationality in a formal sense, that is, nationality acquired at birth or by conferral; it embraces,
at the very least, an individual who, because of his or her special ties to or claims in relation
to a given country, cannot be considered to be a mere alien. This would be the case, for
example, of nationals of a country who have there been stripped of their nationality in
violation of international law, and of individuals whose country of nationality has been
incorporated in or transferred to another national entity, whose nationality is being denied
them. The language of article 12, paragraph 4, moreover, permits a broader interpretation
that might embrace other categories of long-term residents, including but not limited to
stateless persons arbitrarily deprived of the right to acquire the nationality of the country of
such residence.
91
For example, protection against expulsion for persons “lawfully in” the territory is confined
under Article 13 of the ICCPR to procedural safeguards, whereas Article 31 of the 1954
Convention also limits the substantive grounds on which expulsion can be justified.
PART THREE
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