From a Traditional International Law Approach to a Human Rights-Based Approach to Statelessness anomaly, arising only exceptionally from a technical incompatibility between nationality laws. While these technical causes may at times lead to statelessness, in many instances statelessness is rather a deeply rooted human rights problem, resulting from systemic discrimination and exclusion of particular vulnerable groups, such as women, ethnic minorities, and irregular migrants. Human rights law did not only fundamentally change the understanding of statelessness, it did also cause a shift in the approach to it. The Statelessness Conventions were gradually complemented by human rights standards. The UDHR prohibits arbitrary deprivation of nationality, reflecting the condemnation of the mass denationalisation campaigns during the two world wars.101 In 1996, the UN General Assembly confirmed that this prohibition is a fundamental principle.102 Various binding treaties have also laid down the right to a nationality, albeit with varying scopes. At the international level, the ICCPR103, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)104, and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families105 set out the right of every child to acquire a nationality, while the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) stipulates the right to a nationality in favour of persons with disabilities.106 The HRC has also confirmed the right to a nationality of every individual in various resolutions.107 At the regional level, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provides for the right of every child to acquire a nationality,108 while the Arab Charter on Human Rights follows the scope of the UDHR.109 The most far-reaching right to a nationality can be found in the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), which does not only include the right of every person to a nationality and the right not to be arbitrarily deprived of that nationality – thereby copying the text of the UDHR –, but it also stipulates that every person has the right to the nationality of the State in whose territory he was born if he does not have the right to any other nationality.110 Hence, it legally enshrines the jus soli-principle, the prevalent principle in the Americas.111 Open Society Justice Initiative ‘Citizenship and Equality in Practice: Guaranteeing NonDiscriminatory Access to Nationality, Protecting the Right to be Free from Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, And Combating Statelessness’ (November 2005), 7 <https://www.justiceinitiative.org/uploads/0d3774dc-821e-4f09-849ea21e984378a6/citizenship_20051101.pdf>. 102 UNGA ‘Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (9 February 1996) UN Doc A/RES/50/152, para. 16. 103 ICCPR, art. 24(3). 104 Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 20 November 1989, entered into force 2 September 1990) 1577 UNTS 3 (CRC), art. 7(1). 105 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (adopted 18 December 1990, entered into force 1 July 2003) 2220 UNTS 3 (CRMW), art. 29. 106 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted 24 January 2007, entered into force 3 May 2008) 2515 UNTS 3 (CRPD), art. 18(1)(a). 107 See e.g. HRC ‘The right to a nationality: women and children’ (16 July 2012) UN Doc A/HRC/RES/20/4, para. 1; HRC ‘Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality’ (11 July 2014) UN Doc A/HRC/RES/26/14, para. 1. 108 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (adopted 11 July 1990, entered into force 29 November 1999) OAU Doc CAB/LEG/24.9L49 (ACRWC), art. 6(3). 109 Arab Charter on Human Rights (adopted 22 May 2004, entered into force 15 March 2008), art. 29(1). 110 American Convention on Human Rights (adopted 22 November 1969, entered into force 18 July 1978) 1144 UNTS 123 (ACHR), art. 20. 111 De Groot and Vonk (n 17), 237; Shearer and Opeskin (n 50), 98. 101 European University Institute 11