ChaChapter 1: Nationality and Statelessness 1.3 International and regional legal frameworks States have long taken an interest in addressing the issue of statelessness through the conclusion of international agreements. This has manifested itself in the development of two sets of standards: (1) to prevent and reduce cases of statelessness by placing certain (minor) limits on states’ freedom to regulate the conditions for acquisition and loss of nationality and (2) to guarantee the enjoyment of fundamental rights for people who nevertheless end up stateless. These two distinct, yet mutually reinforcing bodies of international law will be presented briefly in the following paragraphs. With the advent of human rights law, since the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to a nationality is recognised worldwide as a fundamental right of the individual.27 As such, there is an onus on states to do what they can to avoid statelessness. This fact should by no means be understood to imply that states have lost their authority to regulate access to nationality as 27 - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights determines that “everyone has the right to a nationality” (article 15). This sentiment has since been expressed, in one form or another, in virtually every major human rights instrument adopted since 1948, including the almost universally-ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child (article 7). 29