International Law-Making in Disguise? A Critical Legal Assessment of the Mandate and Practice on Statelessness of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 10 to 12 million people worldwide are without nationality, and are stateless. Stateless persons are among the most vulnerable human beings, as no State takes responsibility for them. Statelessness is a human rights issue, as stateless persons are often excluded from basic services, such as education and healthcare. The UN General Assembly has gradually expanded UNHCR’s mandate to address the issue. Over the last decade, UNHCR has taken a wide range of initiatives, such as encouraging States to accede to the two global treaties on the matter (1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness) and publishing guidelines on how States should interpret and implement the treaties. UNHCR’s practices raise the question what the legal value is of its interpretations, and whether its practices comply with its legal powers, on which legal scholarship fails to provide an answer.

This research project inquires what role UNHCR plays in the development of the international legal framework on statelessness and the implementation thereof at the domestic level, and what UNHCR’s mandate, legal powers, and democratic accountability are in that respect. This research is important because UNHCR is intensely involved in national procedures and decision-making processes and its practices have far-reaching consequences for millions of stateless persons worldwide.