THE RISK OF STATELESSNESS 58 YALE HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT L.J. 2017 [Vol. 19 codified in the ICCPR and CRC in the specific case of migrant children.61 At the same time that the international community has consolidated the right to acquire a nationality at birth though international conventions, it has also further articulated the related protection against the arbitrary deprivation of nationality.62 Specifically with regard to racial discrimination in the right to a nationality, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) established that “States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone . . . to nationality.”63 A General Comment to the ICERD clarified that the scope of this protection included the recognition “that deprivation of citizenship on the basis of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin is a breach of States Parties’ obligations to ensure non-discriminatory enjoyment of the right to nationality.”64 These developments in major human rights treaties demonstrate the shift from nationality as a matter exclusively in the purview of the state to an individual human right. Moreover, many of these treaties have been widely ratified, which indicates some measure of acceptance by the global community. This development has been tracked in the body of international law to protect stateless persons and reduce statelessness, which has gained some momentum in recent years. B. International Protection for Stateless Persons The early efforts to create a body of international law to regulate nationality at the 1930 Hague Conference incorporated an understanding that every person should have a nationality, and that statelessness was to be avoided.65 This sentiment was present in the preamble of the 1930 Convention, and it was reflected in the articles of the Convention itself, which required that a person acquire another nationality before an 61. Int’l Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families art. 29, opened for signature Dec. 18, 1990, 2220 U.N.T.S. 93. 62. After only years after this protection was inscribed in the UDHR, the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women reiterated the protection when it called on states to prohibit the deprivation of the nationality of women through the formation or dissolution of marriage. Convention on the Nationality of Married Women art. 1, opened for signature Feb. 20, 1957, 309 U.N.T.S. 65. 63. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, art. 5(d)(iii), 21 Dec. 1965, 660 U.N.T.S. 195. 64. Comm. on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation XXX on Discrimination Against Non-Citizens, ¶ 14, U.N. Doc. CERD/C/64/Misc.11/rev.3 (Aug. 19, 2004). This protection is also explicitly extended to persons with disabilities in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which clearly prohibits the deprivation of nationality on the basis of disability. See Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities art. 18(1)(a), opened for signature Dec. 13, 2006, 2515 U.N.T.S. 3. 65. See Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Law pmbl., opened for signature Apr. 12, 1930, 179 L.N.T.S. 89 (stating “that it is in the general interest of the international community to secure that all its members should recognise that every person should have a nationality and should have one nationality only.”). Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3111529