CONVENTION RELATING TO THE STATUS OF ... - Refworld

2. Where a stateless person has been forcibly displaced during the Second World
War from the territory of a Contracting State and has, prior to the date of entry into force of
this Convention, returned there for the purpose of taking up residence, the period of
residence before and after such enforced displacement shall be regarded as one
uninterrupted period for any purposes for which uninterrupted residence is required.
1. This Article is a repetition of Article 10 of the Refugee Convention. The inclusion of this
article did not provoke any discussion. It was approved by 21 votes to none, with 1 abstention. 105
The intent and import of this Article is thus the same as was intended by the framers of the
Refugee Convention.
2. Article 10 is the consequence of the provisions of the Convention making the enjoyment
of certain rights dependent on a certain length of sojourn in the receiving country: either explicitly
(Article 7 (2)) or in cases to which Article 6 is applicable, viz., Articles 13, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22(2),26.
The authors of the Refugee Convention sought to mitigate the results of interruption of
residence not due to the free will of the refugee, and to provide a remedy for a stay without
“animus” and without permission, which are usually required to transform one’s “being” in a
certain place into “residence”.
Its wording was, however, not restricted to cases explicitly covered by the Convention and
must be assumed to have also a general application, for instance, where a certain period
of residence is required under the law of the country for naturalization. 106
3. The first paragraph deals with the lack of “legal entry” and “animus”, which is the essence
of enforced sojourn. It stipulates that enforced residence in a Contracting State due to
displacement during the last war of a stateless person, who was brought there without proper
documents or the desire to be there, should not militate against considering such sojourn as part
of the period of “residence” required for the enjoyment of certain rights.
The second paragraph requires a state to consider as one two periods between which
there was an enforced interruption. 107 The only requirement is that the stateless person
return to his former residence before the entry of the Convention into force for the state of
his residence.
Article 11
Stateless seamen
In the case of stateless persons regularly serving as crew members on board a ship flying
the flag of a Contracting State, that State shall give sympathetic consideration to their
establishment on its territory and the issue of travel documents to them or their temporary
admission to its territory, particularly with a view to facilitating their establishment in
another country.
1. This article reproduces the full text of the same Article in the Refugee Convention. There
was neither a discussion of nor opposition to its inclusion. It was adopted unanimously. 108 Its
import and interpretation must therefore be judged on the basis of the history of the relevant
Article in the Refugee Convention.
2. The relevant Article in the Refugee Convention was the result of the peculiar position of
refugees serving on ships flying the flag of a Contracting State: they do not enjoy permission to
105 SR.6, p. 2.
106 The French representative in the Ad Hoc Committee made reference to such a possibility (SR.35, p. 12).
107 A case in point is a stateless person residing in France who, during the war was deported to Germany and some time
thereafter returned to France.
108 SR.6, p. 2.