SAVICKIS AND OTHERS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT ratified by twenty member States of the Council of Europe. Latvia signed this Convention on 30 May 2001 but has not ratified it. 72. The relevant Articles of this Convention read as follows. Article 2 – Definitions “For the purpose of this Convention: a. ’nationality’ means the legal bond between a person and a State and does not indicate the person’s ethnic origin; ...” Article 3 – Competence of the State “1. Each State shall determine under its own law who are its nationals. 2. This law shall be accepted by other States in so far as it is consistent with applicable international conventions, customary international law and the principles of law generally recognised with regard to nationality.” Article 4 – Principles “The rules on nationality of each State Party shall be based on the following principles: a. everyone has the right to a nationality; b. statelessness shall be avoided; c. no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality; d. neither marriage nor the dissolution of a marriage between a national of a State Party and an alien, nor the change of nationality by one of the spouses during marriage, shall automatically affect the nationality of the other spouse.” 73. The Explanatory Report to this Convention states, inter alia, in relation to Article 2: Article 2 – Definitions “22. The concept of nationality was explored by the International Court of Justice in the Nottebohm case. This court defined nationality as ‘a legal bond having as its basis a social fact of attachment, a genuine connection of existence, interests and sentiments, together with the existence of reciprocal rights and duties’ (Nottebohm case, ICJ Reports 1955, p. 23). 23. Nationality’ is defined in Article 2 of the Convention as ‘the legal bond between a person and a State and does not indicate the person’s ethnic origin’. It thus refers to a specific legal relationship between an individual and a State which is recognised by that State. As already indicated in a footnote to paragraph 1 of this explanatory report, with regard to the effects of the Convention, the terms ‘nationality’ and ‘citizenship’ are synonymous.” 23