B. 66 SECTION I.B.1  HE STATE’S DUTY TO PREVENT AND REDUCE T STATELESSNESS B.1 Prevention and reduction of statelessness in international law The duty of a state to prevent and reduce statelessness is linked to the right to nationality of every individual and the right to not be arbitrarily deprived of nationality. Discretion in laws relating to migration, immigration, and nationality are often justified as functions of national sovereignty. However, the fact that the state’s sovereignty in regulating nationality is not absolute and is dependent on the development of international relations was made clear as early as 1923 by the Permanent Court of Justice.95 After this decision, the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws and the Protocol relating to a Certain Case of Statelessness together codified the international rules on abolition of statelessness. Since these developments, and particularly with Article 15 of the UDHR in 1948, the development of international human rights law has significantly clarified the boundaries within which state sovereignty in citizenship matters must be exercised.96 The 1954 Convention was adopted to establish that the fundamental rights of stateless persons need to be protected. The 1961 Convention was further adopted to propose a framework through which statelessness could be reduced and prevented. The 1961 Convention simply reaffirmed the existing international custom of a state’s duty to prevent and reduce statelessness and set out rules for its implementation.97 This duty has been reaffirmed and integrated through several other 95  Nationality Decrees Issued in Tunis and Morocco (Advisory Opinion) [1923] PCIJ Rep Series B No 4. 96 Mirna Adjami and Julia Harrington, ‘The Scope and Content of Article 15’ (n 79) 93. 97 Council of Europe, ‘Explanatory Report to the European Convention on Nationality’ (6 November 1997) ETS No.166. SECURING CITIZENSHIP