Part V The Scope of Refugee Protection, Ch.44 Stateless Refugees

Abstract

This chapter focuses on stateless refugees. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Stateless Convention) and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness together form the foundation of the international legal framework on statelessness and the protection of stateless persons. As the refugee definition in article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention makes clear, it has always been assumed that having or not having a nationality is not a determinant element for being recognized as a refugee; in fact UNHCR datasets record stateless refugees as refugees. At the same time, considerations of nationality or lack thereof can have a strong bearing on the assessment of key elements of the refugee definition. For instance, claims for protection from individuals whose nationality was denied or withdrawn or whose nationality is ineffective may be relevant facts in the assessment of persecution or well-founded fear. The chapter therefore considers the extent to which the Refugee Convention protects stateless persons as refugees, scrutinizing all parts of the definition in article 1A(2).