Statelessness as a Product of Slippery Statecraft procedure. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was created through an extensive series of consultations and intergovernmental negotiations, led by the Special Representative for International Migration, Louise Arbour, and with prominent influence of the International Organization for Migration (‘IOM’), which officially became a UN-related agency at the New York Summit in 2016. 126 The final draft of the Global Compact on Migration was released in July 2018, and was adopted at an intergovernmental conference in Marrakech, Morocco in December 2018. 127 Consultation proceedings and notes from participant observation during this process suggest that the ongoing tension between neoliberal migration management and human-rights based approaches to migration governance continue to play out. Whereas the IOM approach emphasises safe and orderly migration in line with neoliberal concerns, OHCHR, International Labour Organization (‘ILO’), UN Women and NGO coalitions came together in the first of six thematic sessions to discuss ‘[h]uman rights of all migrants, social inclusion, cohesion, and all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance’. 128 Child statelessness featured in the issue brief prepared for that session, as a specific need related to the human rights of migrants in vulnerable situations: ‘For children born in a migratory context, there may be a risk of statelessness due to the additional hurdles they may face in establishing their nationality’. 129 Yet again, the corresponding solution put forth in the co-chairs’ summary report was narrow in focus, in line with UNHCR’s action points: issue birth certificates to avoid statelessness. Relevant language on ensuring all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation did make it into the final draft. This includes strengthening measures to reduce statelessness by registering migrants’ births. 130 At the same time, the final wording limits states’ commitment to ‘fulfil the right of all individuals to a legal identity by providing all our nationals with proof of nationality and relevant documentation’. 131 During the intergovernmental negotiations on the zero draft of the compact, the Israeli delegation was observed to be leading a chorus of states pushing back against a clause calling for universal birth registration for migrants’ children, claiming that their duty was only to nationals. 132 While the Global Compact on Migration is an important complementary framework for protecting the right to a nationality, this kind of contradictory language may water it down considerably. Upholding a humanrights based approach, while also respecting state sovereignty has never been a straightforward task. As this paper suggests, some states continue to affirm the latter in order to shirk their responsibility for upholding the human right to a nationality. 126 United Nations ‘Global Compact for Migration’ <https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/migration- compact>. 127 ibid. 128 Issue Brief 1: Human Rights of All Migrants, Social Inclusion, Cohesion and all Forms of 129 130 131 132 Discrimination, Including Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance (Brief, United Nations, May 2017). ibid 5. Global Compact on Migration (n 117) [20](e). ibid [20]. Participant Observation Notes (International Migration Research Centre, New York, April 2018). 151