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 are either granted a visa or leave the country. 87 Since there is no limit on immigration detention under Australian law, 88 individuals can be held in detention for very long periods of time (theoretically for their entire lives). 89 C) International legal framework protecting stateless individuals There are several legal instruments that address statelessness; including, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which affirms that “everyone has the right to a nationality” and “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” 90 Additionally, there are two statelessness-specific legal instruments. 91 The two main statelessness-specific legal instruments are the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless individuals 92 (1954 Convention) and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 93 (1961 Convention). The 1954 Convention’s most significant contribution to international law is its recognition of the international legal status of “stateless individuals.” 94 It established the definition of a stateless individual as someone “who is not considered a national by any State under the operations of its law.” 95 This definition is now recognized as customary international law. 96 The 1954 87. REFUGEE COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, STATELESSNESS IN AUSTRALIA 15 (2015), https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wpcontent/uploads/2018/12/1508-Statelessness.pdf [https://perma.cc/E2Z2-SKU7]. 88. Id. 89. Id. 90. G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, art. 15, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Dec. 10, 1948); see What is Statelessness?, supra note 55. 91. Id. 92. See Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Sep. 28, 1954, 360 U.N.T.S., 117 [hereinafter 1954 Convention]. 93. See Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Aug. 30, 1961, 989 U.N.T.S. 175 [hereinafter 1961 Convention]. 94. See U.N. High Comm’r for Refugees (UNHCR), Protecting the Rights of Stateless Persons: The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons at 4 (Jan. 2014) [hereinafter Protecting the Rights of Stateless Persons]. 95. 1954 Convention, supra note 92, at art. 1. 96. See generally id.; See also Tamás Molnár, Remembering the Forgotten: International Law Regime Protecting the Stateless Persons–Stocktaking and New Tendancies, 11 U.S.-CHINA L. REV. 822, 831 (2014). 368