42 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 25(1) 3. Article 8 (3) of the convention and the development of its use The United Nations Conference on the Elimination or Reduction of Future Statelessness that was held in 1959 opted for the more moderate of the two presented drafts, which aimed for the less ambitious and more abstract reduction of statelessness instead of the elimination thereof.16 Despite the fact that this version left a margin of discretion for the Contracting States on some controversial points of the regulation of nationality, States appeared to be reluctant to ratify the Convention.17 In 2001, 40 years after adoption of the Convention, only 17 States had ratified the Convention.18 This result was observed by scholars to be significantly lower than could usually be expected for an international treaty initiated by the United Nations.19 The ratification status improved in 1995 when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was assigned the responsibility to promote accession to the 1961 Convention, and by 2017 the Convention had been ratified by 53 additional States.20 An analysis of the development of the use of declarations under Article 8(3) of the 1961 Convention by ratifying States, shows that from amongst the six States which first ratified the Convention, the number of declarations was relatively high as half of the States (The United Kingdom, Austria, and Ireland) made such a declaration.21 However, for more than two decades after entry into force of the Convention in 1975, the total number of declarations submitted did not increase until Tunisia ratified the 1961 Convention in 2000 and attached a declaration in accordance with Article 8(3).22 With increasing numbers of ratifications, the submission of Article 8(3) declarations became more widely used. Between the years 2006 and 2010, two additional declarations were submitted, and four more declarations were attached to ratifications between the years 2011 and 2015 (see Figure 1).23 To date, The United Kingdom (1966), Austria (1972), Ireland (1973), Tunisia (2000), New Zealand (2006), Brazil (2007), Jamaica (2013), Lithuania (2013), Belgium (2014) and Georgia (2014) have all submitted declarations in accordance with Article 8(3). While the total number of Article 8(3) declarations has, therefore, significantly increased in recent years, the proportional relationship of declarations submitted in relation to the total amount of State Parties has been characterized by a continuous decline since the Convention’s entry into force in 1975 (see Figure 2). 16. United Nations General Assembly, ‘Final Act of the United Nations Conference on the Elimination or Reduction of Future Statelessness (A/CONF.9/14 and Add.1)’, United Nations (1961), http://legal.un.org/docs/?path¼./diplomat icconferences/1959_statelessness/docs/english/vol_1/a_conf9_14_and_add1.pdf&lang¼E, p. 4. See on the interpretation of the 1961 Convention in particular, 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’, UNHCR (2014); and UNHCR, ‘Expert meeting: Interpreting the 1961 Convention and Avoiding Statelessness resulting from Loss and Deprivation of Nationality’, UNHCR (2016), http://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/ statelessness/5465e2cb9/interpreting-1961-statelessness-convention-avoiding-statelessness-resulting.html?query¼Tunis% 20conclusions. This meeting was held in Tunis in 2016 (the Tunis Conclusions). 17. See United Nations Treaty Collection, ‘Chapter V: Refugees and Stateless Persons’, UNTC (2017), http://treaties.un. org/Pages/Treaties.aspx?id¼5&subid¼A&lang¼en. 18. Compare Figure 1. 19. L. van Waas, Nationality Matters, Statelessness under International Law (Intersentia, 2009), p. 203, 204. 20. UNHCR, ‘Executive Committee Conclusions No. 78 (XLVI)’, UNHCR (1995), http://www.unhcr.org/41b4607c4.pdf. 21. The United Kingdom, Austria, and Ireland were among the first six State Parties to the 1961 Convention. 22. France signed the 1961 Convention and submitted a declaration under Article 8 (1), but it never ratified the Convention. 23. The necessary data for Figure 1 and Figure 2 were retrieved from: United Nations Treaty Collection, ‘Chapter V: Refugees and Stateless Persons’, UNTC (2017).