However, the discretion of States regarding citizenship and civil registration is limited by obligations under international treaties to which they are party, customary international law and general principles of law. 16 It is the responsibility of the States to incorporate international and regional legal responsibilities in their national laws to ensure alignment. The essential international legal conventions for the protection of stateless persons are the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. It defines a stateless person and establishes minimum treatment standards for stateless people concerning several rights. These include, although are not limited to, the right to education, employment and housing. The 1954 Convention also guarantees stateless people a right to identity, travel documents and administrative assistance. Specific obligations relating to the prevention and reduction of statelessness are established under the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The 1961 Convention requires that States establish safeguards in legislation to address statelessness occurring at birth or later in life. It also sets out necessary safeguards to prevent statelessness due to loss or renunciation of nationality or state succession. The 1961 Convention also sets out the minimal situations in which States can deprive a person of his or her nationality, even if this would leave the person stateless. Only a few countries in Southern Africa the following countries have acceded to both statelessness conventions, and some countries have reservations. Parties to Statelessness Conventions in the SADC 17 Parties to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions Angola, Mozambique, Eswatini, and Lesotho Parties to the 1954 Convention only Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe Parties to none of the Conventions Comoros, Congo, DRC, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, and South Africa Another core convention is the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), which provides the child's right to an identity and nationality from birth. Article 7 states that birth registration is a child's right from birth. “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality, and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.” 18 Other International instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of 16 https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/UNHCR-Statelessness-2pager-ENG.pdf 17 https://www.refworld.org/docid/623d8ec74.html 18 The Convention of the Right of the Child, 1989 https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/conventiontext# 6