Universal-MigrationHRlaw-PG-no-6-Publications-PractitionersGuide-2014-eng

104 | PRACTITIONERS GUIDE No. 6tional law. 276 Persons falling within this definition are commonly referredto as de jure stateless persons. The definition of statelessness includespersons either outside or within their country of habitual residence ororigin 277 as well as refugees who have been deprived of nationality intheir country of origin, and to whom the Geneva Refugee Conventionapplies. 278 While the definition seems to require verification that an individuallacks the nationality of any State, in fact it is only required thatsuch checks be made as regards States with which the individual enjoysa relevant link (in particular birth on the territory, descent, marriage orhabitual residence). 279 Failing these, he or she should be recognised asa stateless person.The Statelessness Convention provides the stateless person with somespecific rights which States Parties must guarantee, and that are,for the most part, identical to those included in the Geneva RefugeeConvention. Most of the rights establish an equality of treatment toaliens, such as the right to property (Article 13), the right of association(Article 15), the right to wage-earning employment (Article 17),the right to self-employment (Article 18), the right to practice liberalprofessions (Article 19), the right to housing (Article 21), the right toeducation other than elementary (Article 22.2), the right to freedomof movement (Article 26). For other rights, the enjoyment by statelesspersons is equated with that of nationals: the right to freedom of religion(Article 4), the right to artistic rights and industrial property (Article 14),the right of access to courts (Article 16), the right to equal treatmentto nationals in rationing systems (Article 20), the right to elementaryeducation (Article 22.1), the right to public relief (Article 23), the rightto healthy and fair working conditions and the right to social security(Article 24), the right to equal treatment to nationals in the impositionof fiscal charges (Article 29). Finally, the Statelessness Conventionguarantees stateless persons some specific rights: a particular rightof non-discrimination on the basis of race, religion or country of origin(Article 3), the right to a personal status (Article 12), the right to identitypapers and to travel documents (Articles 27 and 28), and specificrights and guarantees connected to expulsion procedures (Article 31).However, the Statelessness Convention has been at present ratified byonly 65 States, thereby limiting the universal effect of its provisions.276 The Concept of Stateless Persons under International Law, Summary Conclusions of theExpert Meeting organised by the Office of the UNHCR, Prato, Italy, 27–28 May 2010, para. 2.Report of the International Law Commission, Text of the draft articles on diplomatic protectionadopted by the Commission on first reading: commentary on article 8, General Assembly,Fifty-ninth session, Supplement No. 10 (A/59/10), 2004, at p. 46.277 Ibid., para. 4.278 Ibid., para. 5.279 Ibid., paras. 14 and 22.