immediately concerned, but may also affect their families, the wider community, the state and even inter-state relations. For instance, statelessness can obstruct the enjoyment of family life and has been identified as a root cause of displacement and conflict. MENA states have already expressed their commitment, through ratification of a range of international human rights instrument, to address statelessness and its consequences. All MENA countries are, for instance, state parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Many have also ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Although some countries have entered reservations to provisions pertaining to (certain aspects of) the right to a nationality, taking on these international obligations shows widespread acceptance of the principles of equality and non-discrimination and commitment to protect and ensure human rights. There are a number of regional agreements to which various MENA states are parties which also provide a foundation for promoting the enjoyment of rights and which recognise the right to a nationality. These include the Arab Charter on Human Rights, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam. Indeed, the League of Arab States stipulates in its Charter that one of the purposes of the League is the close cooperation of member states on nationality matters. It can further be noted that the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation, of which all but four MENA countries are members, adopted a resolution on statelessness in 2006. So, even though the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness have attracted just 3 and 2 accessions respectively within the MENA region, the aforementioned international and regional agreements lay a firm foundation for both protecting the rights of stateless persons and avoiding statelessness by promoting the right to a nationality. State formation, national identity and statelessness State succession has long been major sources of statelessness, including in the MENA region. The nationality acts adopted following the establishment of MENA countries as we know them today delineate the terms of membership – access to nationality – of the state. These provisions for granting or recognising nationality were heavily influenced by conditions at the time and in some instances, there was a confluence of factors which resulted in cases of statelessness. For example, since the concepts of nationality and of controlled borders were previously unknown to certain (nomadic or tribal) sectors of the population, some persons failed to appreciate or prioritise the need to register to acquire citizenship and remained without nationality. Others were unable to satisfy the practical requirements in order to be registered as citizens or were excluded with a view to securing a particular sectarian or demographic balance at the defining moment of state formation. Apart from historical conditions, restrictions remain in place in several countries which continue to create situations of statelessness. Where the state has included ethnicity or 22