Mai Kaneko-Iwase, Ph.D. (Law) Table 1: UN Member States that are Parties/Non-State Parties to the 1961 Convention with Foundling Provisions(as of 13 December 2024) 1961 Convention State parties 82 (42% out of 193) States with foundling provisions 142 (74% out of 193) 1961 Convention Non-State parties 111 (58% out of 193) States without foundling provisions 51 (26% out of 193) Total no. of UN Member States 1961 Convention State Parties with Foundling Provisions 1961 Convention Non-State Parties with Foundling Provisions Total no. of UN Member States with Foundling Provisions 65 (46% out of 142) 77 (54% out of 142) 142 (74% out of 193 States) 193 Customary international law arises when there is general (widespread and consistent) state practice accepted as law (opinio juris).39 The prevention of statelessness itself is regarded as a fundamental principle of international law,40 and assertions are made that it is now part of the norms of customary international law.41 Reservations might be expressed as to whether the grant of nationality to all children born in the territory, otherwise stateless, has actually attained the status of customary law norm due to the gaps in nationality laws and practice. However, William Thomas Worster asserts, for example, that, with the UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign creating momentum, it can now be confidently concluded that state practice and opinio juris support the customary norm, with states increasingly reforming their practices and acknowledging their statelessness prevention obligations, and divergent practice widely characterised as wrongful.42 While the number of state parties to the 1961 Convention remains relatively small, it has more than doubled since UNHCR launched an accession campaign in 2010, i.e. from 37 States as of 1 October 2010 to 82 as of February 2026. The right to acquire nationality is enshrined in a number of international and regional treaties and other instruments, including in Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights43 as well as Article 7(1) of the CRC and Article 24(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’)44 and is, therefore, considered a ‘fundamental human right’.45 In particular, Article 7(1) of CRC, contracted by 192 UN member states, stipulates ‘the child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have 39 Statute of the International Court of Justice, Article 38(1)(b). Conclusion 2 and 8, of the ILC Draft Conclusions on the Identification of Customary International Law (2018) <https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/commentaries/1_13_2018.pdf>. 40 See for example UN General Assembly, Resolution 50/152 (1995) para 16 ‘calls upon States to adopt nationality legislation with a view to reducing statelessness, consistent with the fundamental principles of international law (….)’ <https://www.refworld.org/legal/ resolution/unga/1996/en/17284>. 41 See for example the UNHCR-convened expert meeting ‘Interpreting the 1961 Statelessness Convention and Avoiding Statelessness resulting from Loss and Deprivation of Nationality’ (‘Tunis Conclusions) (March 2014) para 2; Ineta Ziemele, Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 7 The Right to Birth Registration, Name and Nationality, and the Right to Know and Be Cared for by Parents (Martinus Nijhoff 2007) 25; William Thomas Worster, ‘Customary International Law Requiring States to Grant Nationality to Stateless Children Born in Their Territory’, Statelessness & Citizenship Review 4(1) (2022) 113-139. 42 Worster (n 41) 116. 43 While UDHR is non-binding, some of the norms it contains are now considered to constitute customary international law or general principles of law. See for example James Crawford and Ian Brownlie, Brownlie’s principles of public international law (Ninth edition 2019 OUP) 612. 44 See for example Hajime Akiyama, ‘Jiyuken Kiyaku ni okeru kodomo no kokuseki shutokuken to kokka no gimu – Jiyuken Kiyaku dai 2 jo no kanten kara’ [The right of the child to acquire nationality under the ICCPR and states’ duties – From the perspective of Article 2 of the ICCPR] (2019) 30 Kokusaijinken [Journal of International Human Rights] 115-119. 45 See for example a series of the resolutions adopted by the UN Human Rights Council, including Resolution 32/5 (2016) para 1. 13 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies