Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 53 (2021) Ghosts in America: Working Towards Building a Legal Framework for Stateless Individuals in the United States Convention guarantees stateless individuals access to courts (Article 16), 97 a right to employment (Article 17), 98 a right to housing (Article 21), 99 a right to administrative assistance (Article 25), 100 and a right to identity and travel documents (Article 27 and 28) among others. 101 The 1954 Convention was seen as a temporary measure while States continued to devise solutions to prevent statelessness. 102 In comparison, the 1961 Convention gave States tools to avoid and solve statelessness. 103 The 1961 Convention lists safeguards in four main areas to be implemented by States to prevent and reduce statelessness. These include measures to avoid statelessness among children (Article 1 to 4), 104 measures to avoid statelessness due to loss or renunciation of nationality (Article 5 to 7), 105 measures to avoid statelessness due to deprivation of nationality (Articles 8 and 9), 106 and measures to avoid statelessness in the context of State succession. 107 These legal instruments do not constitute an exhaustive list. 108 Protections against statelessness are also embedded in several human rights treaties and regional treaties. 109 Despite the efforts of their well-intentioned drafters, the two statelessness-specific conventions have inherent weaknesses that have impeded a successful international resolution to statelessness. 110 The main issue is that the two conventions have not gained widespread 97. 1954 Convention, supra note 92, at art. 16. 98. Id. at art. 17. 99. Id. at art. 21. 100. Id. at art. 25. 101. Id. at arts. 27–28. 102. Protecting the Rights of Stateless Persons, supra note 94, at 9. 103. Id. 104. See generally 1961 Convention, supra note 93, at art. 1–4 (setting guidelines for assigning nationalities at birth to persons who would otherwise be stateless). 105. Id. at arts. 5–7. 106. Id. at arts. 8–9. 107. See generally id. at art. 10 (securing nationalities for persons as a result of transfer). 108. See U.N. High Comm’r for Refugees (UNHCR), Preventing and Reducing Statelessness: The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, at 6 (Mar. 2014). 109. David Weissbrodt & Clary Collins, The Human Rights of Stateless Persons, 28 HUM. RTS. Q. 245, 246 (2006) (listing human rights treaties that have statelessness provisions). 110. See van Waas, supra note 37, at 137. 369