Naturalization and statelessness (was: Re: FM Alert, Vol. II, No.1)

Date: Sun, 18 Jan 98 12:26:23 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Naturalization and statelessness (was: Re: FM Alert, Vol. II, No.1)

From: MINELRES moderator       \ Internet:    ([email protected])

Naturalization and statelessness (was: Re: FM Alert, Vol. II, No.1)

Dear Francoise, I agree with all but one points made in your most
interesting posting (sorry for some omissions I had to make to reduce its
size). Namely: 

Francoise Girard <[email protected]> wrote: 

> Unfortunately, even though it would appear that its refusal to recognize 
> the stateless status of its non-citizen residents puts Latvia in breach of
the > Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, few legal consequences
are 
> likely to ensue from this stance since the Convention lacks implementation
> and enforcement mechanisms.
     
This is true only to a limited extent. I mean that the 1961 Convention
contains Art.11 which envisages the monitoring mechanism: "The Contracting
States shall promote the establishment within the framework of the United
Nations, as soon as may be after the deposit of the sixth instrument of
ratification or accession, of a body to which a person claiming the benefit
of this Convention may apply for the examination of his claim and for
assistance in presenting it to the appropriate authority". 

In fact, this body has never been created. However, in 1974 the UN General
Assembly adopted a resolution 3274 (XXIX) A/9869 which requests UNHCR to
provisionally undertake the function of examining and screening claims
foreseen in Art.11. Thus, everybody who believes that his rights under the
Convention are violated may appeal to the UNHCR. 

Unfortunately, quite few states have ratified the 1961 Convention (16 in
1993:  Bolivia, Costa Rica, Australia, Canada, Kiribati, Austria, Denmark,
Germany, Ireland, Libya, the Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Sweden, the UK,
Latvia), thus, formally the procedure above is applicable only to these
states. I am not aware of any cases when such applications were submitted
indeed. Does somebody have any information in this respect?

Boris
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