for the CRC, the United States is the only country that has yet to ratify.58
These treaties contain important obligations pertinent to the prevention
of statelessness. Article 9(1) of CEDAW obligates state parties to ‘grant
women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality’ and therefore requires them to ensure that ‘neither marriage to an
alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall
automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or
force upon her the nationality of the husband.’ In addition, Article 9(2) of
CEDAW obligates state parties to ‘grant women equal rights with men
with respect to the nationality of their children.’ For the CRC, Article
7 affirms the right of every child to acquire a nationality and requires
states to implement measures to ensure that no child is left stateless.59
Article 7(1) requires the child to be ‘registered immediately after birth’
and to have the right from birth to a name and to acquire a nationality.
Furthermore, Article 8(1) obligates state parties to ‘undertake to respect
the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality,
name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful
interference.’
In addition, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR),60 another widely ratified treaty within Asia, contains two
important safeguards. First Article 24 provides that, ‘Every child shall
be registered immediately after birth and shall have a name’61 and ‘Every
child has the right to acquire a nationality’.62 The Human Rights
Committee has recently articulated the positive obligations imposed on
states by Article 24, meaning that Article 24 and its evolving interpretation can be understood as an ‘important contribution to protection
against statelessness’.63 Second, Article 26 of the ICCPR guarantees
Sarah Mehta, ‘There’s Only One Country That Hasn’t Ratified the Convention on Children’s
Rights: US’ (ACLU, 20 November 2015) <www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/theres-onlyone-country-hasnt-ratified-convention-childrens> accessed 12 September 2023.
59
Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), ‘Statelessness & Human Rights: The
Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (Booklet, 2018) <https://files.institutesi.org/
statelessness-and-CRC.pdf> accessed 12 September 2023.
60
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered
into force 23 March 1976) 999 UNTS 171 (ICCPR).
61
ibid Art 24(2).
62
ibid Art 24(3).
63
Human Rights Committee, D.Z. v. Netherlands, Views adopted by the Committee under
Article 5 (4) of the Optional Protocol, concerning communication No. 2918/2016 (20
January 2021) UN Doc CCPR/C/130/D/2918/2016, in the words of the concurring
opinion of member Hélène Tigroudja at 12[1]. For an analysis of this decision see
58
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009399555.003 Published online by Cambridge University Press