Endnotes This was also confirmed by the International Law Commission: “[w]hen a state disappears by dissolution, its nationality also disappears”, International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States (With Commentaries), 3 April 1999. Supplement No. 10 (A/54/10), UNHCR Refworld, Commentary (1) to Article 23, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4512b6dd4.html (accessed 16 September 2008) 2 See inter alia Ian Brownlie, Principles of public international law, Sixth edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.64, 70-79, 86-88, 105-107, 117-118; James Crawford, The Creation of States in International Law, Second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp.3-74; Malcolm N. Shaw, International Law, Sixth edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp.211-214; Peter Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law, Seventh revised edition, London, New York: Routledge, 1997, reprinted 1998, pp. 75-79, 88, 152-154. In the absence of an internationally agreed definition under treaty or customary law, resort is had here to the writings of publicists as a subsidiary source of international law is in accordance with Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. 3 In the context of the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change held in March 2009 in Copenhagen, scientists highlighted that likely sea-level rise by 2100 could be up to one meter or more, and was unlikely to be less than 0.5m, see inter alia Climate Secretariat, University of Copenhagen, “Rising sea levels set to have major impacts around the world”, 10 March 2009, http://climatecongress.ku.dk/newsroom/rising_sealevels/ (accessed 18 March 2009). 4 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2007, Fourth Assessment Report, “Report of the International Working Group II Report “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, p.733, http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg2.htm (accessed 18 September 2008). The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change. 5 Ibid, p.317. 6 Ibid, p.736 7 See Brownlie, supra, pp.64, 86-88, Crawford, supra, pp.26-28, 93, Malanczuk, supra, p.84,. 8 There is no universally accepted definition of de facto statelessness. It has been referred to in different instruments as well as by publicists. The Final Act of the 1961 Convention on Reduction of Statelessness indicates that “persons who are stateless de facto should as far as possible be treated as stateless de jure to enable them to acquire an effective nationality”, thus indicating that lack of effective nationality would be considered as a form of de facto statelessness. See also Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelesssness in Relation to State Succession, Strasbourg, 19.V.2006, Council of Europe Treaty Series, No. 200, Explanatory Report, Article 3 Prevention of statelessness, para. 16. “State succession may well create situations of de facto statelessness where persons do have the nationality of one of the States concerned but are unable to benefit from the protection of that State”. 9 Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “[e]veryone has a right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”. The right to a nationality is iterated as well inter alia in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, although the formulation varies. The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the 1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women also contain relevant provisions. At a regional level, see the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the 2005 Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam, the 1948 American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights and the 1997 European Convention on Nationality. The principle of prevention of statelessness is iterated in many of the same instruments. Additionally, both principles have been iterated numerous times by the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council and the International Law Commission. 10 Other instruments include inter alia the Draft Articles on the Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to Succession of States and, at a regional level, the 2006 Council of Europe Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to State succession. 11 General Assembly Resolution GA/RES/50/152, 9 February 1996, paras.14-15. This mandate is additional to its earlier mandate to undertake the functions foreseen under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention first given in 1974 and then extended through Resolutions GA/RES/3274 (XXIX), 10 December 1974, and GA/RES/31/36, 30 November 1976. 12 The 1961 Convention in Article 10 provides that in the absence of any treaty ensuring that no persons are left stateless, any contracting State to which territory is transferred shall grant its nationality on persons who would otherwise be stateless. The Draft Articles on Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States are also relevant. Article 21 prescribes that citizenship should be automatically extended to all citizens of the predecessor island State. As well, habitual residents who may have left owing to climatic change, should have right of option to obtain same status in successor state including acquired rights; see commentary (3) to above Article. The International Law Commission noted that Article 21 in its view embodied a rule of customary international law; see commentary (6) to above article. 1 4