The Government of Rwanda on Friday, July 24, received, on humanitarian grounds, a stateless person named Amin Hassoun who was relocated from the United States after completing a prison sentence. By definition, according to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, a stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any state. According to a government statement issued on Friday, Hassoun willingly accepted being relocated and settled in Rwanda. Hassoun, a Palestinian born in Lebanon settled in the United States in the 1980s and worked as a computer programmer. After 9/11 he was convicted under the Patriot Act with making contributions to an Islamic charity that supported groups involved in terrorism in Chechnya and Bosnia. While in Florida, Hassoun attended the same mosque with José Padilla, an American who was arrested in 2002 for involvement in a plot to detonate a dirty bomb in the US. While he was convicted of material support for terrorism, Hassoun was not personally accused of involvement in violent acts. He completed his sentence in 2018, but left in limbo, as he has had citizenship and therefore no country to deport him to. Palestinian refugees born in Lebanon do not qualify for Lebanese citizenship and neither can they get Israeli citizenship. Since he never acquired US citizenship, he is considered a stateless person under the 1954 Convention on Statelessness. The United States then kept him in detention under a never-used provision of the Patriot Act. However judges in the United States rejected the US Governments claims that he represents a threat, but there was an impasse about where he could go if released. Rwanda, with the agreement of Hassoun and other concerned states, offered to host him. Rwanda, in the Communique issued Friday, July 24, reiterated the full commitment towards fulfilling the UN Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons. “The Government of Rwanda has previously received stateless persons from various parts of the world and reiterates its full commitment to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, to which it is a signatory,” reads the statement. In 2006, Rwanda acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Who is Hassoun? He is a Lebanese-born Palestinian who first moved to the United States in the late 1980s and was first arrested in 2002 for overstaying his visa. In August 2007, he was convicted, along with Padilla, of conspiracy and material support charges and sentenced to a prison term of 15 years, 8 months. All but one of his donations to the Islamic charities were prior to 9/11 attacks. He was not charged or convicted for any actions linked to violence or intended violence He was never considered a violent or dangerous offender. He completed his sentence early in 2017 for good behavior. Since he could not be deported, the US notified him that he was to be detained indefinitely and held him as an immigration prisoner His detention was challenged in court and judges ruled a release order in June this year after finding that the US government had provided no basis for holding him. A glimpse on rights for stateless persons The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons requires that stateless persons have the same rights as citizens with respect to freedom of religion and education of their children. For a number of other rights, such as the right of association, the right to employment and to housing, it provides that stateless persons are to enjoy, at a minimum, the same treatment as other non-nationals. The Convention also upholds the right to freedom of movement for stateless persons lawfully on the territory and requires States to provide them with identity papers and travel documents.
