International Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons

International Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons examines the extent to which the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees protectsde jure stateless persons. While de jure stateless persons are clearly protected by the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, this book seeks to explore the extent to which such persons are also entitled to refugee status. The questions addressed include the following: When is a person 'without a nationality' for the purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention? What constitutes one's country of former habitual residence as a proxy to one's country of nationality? When does being stateless give rise to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons specified in the 1951 Refugee Convention and/or UNHCR mandate? What are the circumstances under which statelessness constitutes persecution or inhuman or degrading treatment? How are courts assessing individual risk or threat to stateless persons? The book draws on historical and contemporary interpretation of international law based on the travaux préparatoires to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its antecedents, academic writing, UNHCR policy and legal documents, UN Human Rights Council resolutions, UN Human Rights Committee general comments, UN Secretary General reports, and UN General Assembly resolutions. It is also based on original comparative analysis of existing jurisprudence worldwide relating to claims to refugee status based on or around statelessness. By examining statelessness through the prism of international refugee law, this book fills a critical gap in existing scholarship.

Michelle Foster is a Professor and the inaugural Director of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School. Michelle has published widely in the field of international refugee law, including International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (CUP, 2007) and, with James Hathaway, The Law of Refugee Status, Second Edition, (CUP, 2014). Michelle has undertaken consultancy work for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and training of refugee tribunal members in New Zealand and Australia. She is Editor in Chief (with Laura van Waas) of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review. Michelle is also an Advisory Board Member of the Melbourne Journal of International Law, an Associate Member of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Law Judges, and joint case editor (with Professor Hélène Lambert) of the International Journal of Refugee Law. Dr Hélène Lambert is Professor of Law at the University of Technology Sydney (2019-) and Professor of International Law at the University of Westminster in London (2007-). She has also held visiting fellowships at the University of Melbourne Law School (2015) and the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford, 1999). Hélène has been a consultant for the Council of Europe, the UNHCR, and the Swedish Ministry of Justice. She has published numerous books and articles on refugee law and human rights, as well as on international law and international relations. She is currently working on a collaborative project on The Concept of Imminence in the International Protection of Refugees and Other Forced Migrants, with Professor Jane McAdam (Law, University of New South Wales) and Professor Michelle Foster funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (2016-2019).