BACKGROUND NOTE
STATELESSNESS
INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS
1961 UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE REDUCTION OF STATELESSNESS
1. This Convention, ratified by the United Kingdom Government in March 1966, places
certain obligations on contracting states to grant its nationality to persons born
stateless either in or outside its territory. The Convention permits the grant
of nationality to be made subject to a number of specific conditions, including
such matters as time limits for application, a specific period of residence in the
territory concerned, and questions of national security.
1977 UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
2. This Covenant was ratified by the United Kingdom Government in May 1976.
Article 12.4 states that "No-one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter
his own country". In ratifying this Covenant the United Kingdom Government reserved
the right to continue to apply such immigration restrictions as they deemed necessary
This reservation extended to the dependent territories.
DEFINITION OF STATELESSNESS
3. There does not appear to be any internationally agreed definition of
statelessness, but we take it to mean "Having no form of nationality of any country",
If a person can show that he is not accepted as a national of any country, then
we will regard him as being stateless for the purposes of the British Nationality
Act 1981.
PROVISIONS IN THE BNA 1981 FOR REDUCING STATELESSNESS
4. The current provisions for reducing statelessness are contained within Schedule 2
to the BNA 1981. The purpose of these provisions was specifically to enable the
United Kingdom to continue to comply with the requirements of the United Nations
1
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.