The Meaning of ‘Life’ under the Indian Constitution
are part of international and regional instruments 16 and recognised by regional
courts 17 and by UN treaty bodies. 18 This has led to acceptance of this obligation
and the obligation to avoid statelessness in international law. 19
The right to nationality is unlike other human rights and was described by
Hannah Arendt as the right to have rights. 20 This means that while human rights
in general are available to every person, in effect, they are unavailable or
16
17
18
19
20
1954 Convention (n 11); Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, adopted 30 August
1961, 989 UNTS 175 (entered into force 13 December 1975) (‘1961 Convention’);
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted 6 December 1966, 999 UNTS
171 (entered into force 23 March 1976) art 24 (‘ICCPR’). Article 41 of the ICCPR was later
entered into force 28 March 1979 for the provisions of art 41); International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted 7 March 1966, 660 UNTS
195 (entered into force 4 January 1969) art 5 (‘ICERD’); Convention on the Rights of the
Child, adopted 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2 September 1990) art
7 (‘CRC’); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
adopted 18 December 1979 1249 UNTS 13 (entered into force 3 September 1981) art 9
(‘CEDAW’); International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families, adopted 18 December 1990, 2220 UNTS 3 (entered into force
1 July 2003) art 29; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted 13
December 2006, 2515 UNTS 3 (entered into force 3 May 2008) art 18; American Convention
on Human Rights ‘Pact of San José, Costa Rica’, adopted 22 November 1969) 1144 UNTS
123 (entered into force 18 July 1978) art 20; European Convention on Nationality adopted 6
November 1997, ETS No 166 (entered into force 1 March 2000) art 4; African Charter on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child, adopted 11 July 1990, OAU Doc CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (entered
into force 29 November 1999) art 6; United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights
and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/32/5 (15 July 2016) (‘UN
Doc A/HRC/RES/32/5’). See also United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights and
Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/7/10 (27 March 2008) (‘UN Doc
A/HRC/RES/7/10’); United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary
Deprivation of Nationality, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/10/13 (26 March 2009) (‘UN Doc
A/HRC/RES/10/13’); United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary
Deprivation of Nationality, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/13/2 (14 April 2010) (‘UN Doc
A/HRC/RES/13/2’); UNHRC, The Right to a Nationality: Women and Children, UN Doc
A/HRC/RES/20/4 (16 July 2012) (‘UN Doc A/HRC/RES/20/4’); Human Rights and
Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/20/5 (16 July 2012) (‘UN Doc
A/HRC/RES/20/5’); Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, UN Doc
A/HRC/RES/26/14 (11 July 2014) (‘UN Doc A/HRC/RES/26/14’).
See, Janko Rottmann v Freistaat Bayern (C-135/08) [2010] ECR-SC I -1467, [53]; Genovese
v Malta (2011) Eur Court HR 1590 (‘Genovese’); Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico v
Dominican Republic (Judgment) (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Series C No 130,
8 September 2005) [138]–[139], [142] (‘Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico’); The Matter of
Anudo Ochieng Anudo v United Republic of Tanzania (Judgment) (African Court on Human
and Peoples’ Rights, App No 012/2015, 22 March 2018) [76]–[78].
General Comment No 17: Art 24 (Rights of the Child), CCPR/C/GC/17 (7 April 1989)
(‘CCPR GC 17’); General Recommendation No 30 on Discrimination against Non-Citizens,
CERD/C/GR/30 (1 October 2002) (‘CERD GR 30’); General Recommendation No 32 on the
Gender-Related Dimensions of Refugee Status, Asylum, Nationality and Statelessness of
Women, CEDAW/C/GC/32 (5 November 2014); General Comment No 1: Art 12: Equal
Recognition before the Law, CPRD/C/GC/1 (19 May 2014); Joint General Comment No 4 of
the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families and No 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations
Regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in
Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return, CMW/C/GC/4 and CRC/C/GC/23 (16
November 2017).
Explanatory Report to the European Convention on Nationality (Report ETS No 166, Council
of Europe 6 November 1997); Submission by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in the Case of Bedri Hoti v Croatia (Application No.63311/14)
(Submission, UNHCR 3 July 2015); Michelle Foster and Hélène Lambert, International
Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons (1st ed, Oxford University Press 2019)
73; William Thomas Worster, ‘The Obligation to Grant Nationality to Stateless Children
under International Law’ (2019) 27(3) Michigan State International Law Review 441, 468.
Arendt (n 13) 296–97.
189