2016] The Protection of Stateless Persons in Australian Law 407 ‘legal bond between a person and a State’,23 and for the purposes of this article, we use the terms nationality and citizenship interchangeably.24 While states have a duty not to create statelessness,25 they do not have a corresponding obligation to confer nationality, other than in specific situations such as the requirement of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (‘1961 Convention’)26 that nationality be granted to a child born on a state’s territory where a child would otherwise be stateless.27 Article 15(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that ‘[e]veryone has the right to a nationality’,28 but this was not translated into binding form in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’), other than for children.29 Although art 12(4) of the ICCPR provides that ‘[n]o one shall be 23 Carol Batchelor, ‘The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons: Implementation within the European Union Member States and Recommendations for Harmonization’ (2005) 22(2) Refuge 31, 36, 52 n 1. See also the International Court of Justice in Nottebohm (Liechtenstein v Guatemala) (Second Phase) [1955] ICJ Rep 4, 23: ‘nationality is a legal bond having as its basis a social fact of attachment, a genuine connection of existence, interest and sentiments, together with the existence of reciprocal rights and duties’. 24 While this is a very common practice, Weis explains that they in fact emphasise ‘two different aspects of the same notion: State membership. “Nationality” stresses the international, “citizenship” the national, municipal, aspect’: P Weis, Nationality and Statelessness in International Law (Sijthoff and Noordhoff, 2nd ed, 1979) 4–5. 25 See Batchelor, ‘Statelessness and the Problem of Resolving Nationality Status’, above n 1, 169; Hélène Lambert, Refugee Status, Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, and Statelessness within the Context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and Its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UN Doc PPLA/2014/01 (October 2014) 6 (‘Refugee Status’). 26 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, opened for signature 30 August 1961, 989 UNTS 175 (entered into force 13 December 1975). 27 Ibid art 1. See generally Johannes M M Chan, ‘The Right to a Nationality as a Human Right: The Current Trend towards Recognition’ (1991) 12 Human Rights Law Journal 1, 10–11. 28 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res 217A (III), UN GAOR, 3rd sess, 183rd plen mtg, UN Doc A/810 (10 December 1948) art 15(1). 29 ICCPR art 24(3) provides that ‘[e]very child has the right to acquire a nationality.’ This does not necessarily require states to grant nationality to every child born in their territory, since they may have the right to another nationality, but it does require them to confer nationality on children who would otherwise be stateless: Human Rights Committee, ‘General Comment No 17: Article 24 (Rights of the Child)’ in Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, UN Doc HRI/GEN/1/Rev.9 (27 May 2008) vol 1, 193, 195 [8]; Sarah Joseph and Melissa Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentary (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2013) 726. See also Convention on the Rights of the Child, opened for signature 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2 September 1990) art 7; UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No 4: Ensuring Every Child’s Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1–4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, UN Doc HCR/GS/12/04 (21 December 2012) (‘Guidelines on Statelessness No 4’).