Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons


The Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is a 1954 United Nations multilateral treaty that aims to protect stateless individuals.

Surrounding events

The United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights were approved on 10 December 1948. The Declaration at Article 15 affirms that:
  1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
  2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees was promulgated on 28 July 1951. Despite an original intention, it did not include any content about the status of stateless persons and there was no protocol regarding measures to reduce statelessness.
On 26 April 1954, ECOSOC adopted a Resolution to convene a Conference of Plenipotentiaries to "regulate and improve the status of stateless persons by an international agreement".
The ensuing Conference adopted the Convention on 28 September 1954.
The Convention entered into force on 6 June 1960.

Content

The key substantive content of the convention is listed below.

State parties

As of 2024, the United Nations, the depository of the convention, lists 99 parties to the Convention. One state, the Holy See, has signed the convention as a non-member state but has not ratified it. The 99 parties are:
Madagascar denounced its accession made in 1962, effective 2 April 1966. The United Kingdom extended the convention to British Hong Kong, and China has declared that the convention continues to apply to Hong Kong post-1997.