Statelessness Convention 1954

The Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons was adopted in New York on 28 September 1954 and entered into force on 6 June 1960. It is the primary international instrument establishing a legal definition of a stateless person and the baseline rights such persons are entitled to receive from the states in which they live.

Article 1(1) defines a stateless person as someone "who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law." This is known as de jure statelessness. The Convention was originally drafted as a protocol to the 1951 Refugee Convention but was separated because not all stateless persons are refugees and not all refugees are stateless.

Key obligations on contracting states include:

• Non-discrimination in the application of the Convention (Article 3).
• Treatment no less favourable than that accorded to aliens generally with respect to property, association, employment, housing, education, and social security.
• Identity papers (Article 27) and travel documents (Article 28) for stateless persons lawfully on the territory.
• Administrative assistance equivalent to consular services normally provided by a country of nationality (Article 25).
• A prohibition on expulsion save on grounds of national security or public order, and only pursuant to due process (Article 31).
• A duty to facilitate naturalization (Article 32).

The 1954 Convention is complemented by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which addresses prevention rather than status. UNHCR was given a formal mandate to assist stateless persons by UN General Assembly resolutions, and in 2014 launched the #IBelong Campaign to end statelessness by 2024. As of the mid-2020s, the 1954 Convention has fewer parties than the 1951 Refugee Convention, and major states including the United States, India, and most Gulf countries remain outside it.