Chapter 5 How Parliamentarians Can Help Parliamentarians are in a unique position to help to reduce the incidence of statelessness and to ensure that stateless individuals are accorded the rights and fulfill the obligations stipulated under international law. They can do so in several ways: by reviewing nationality legislation and making sure that it conforms to international standards, by supporting accession to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions on statelessness, and by advocating for the reduction or elimination of statelessness and for the resolution of cases involving stateless persons. What should parliamentarians look for as they review national legislation concerning statelessness? • Review relevant international or regional treaties to which the State is Party. Review treaties, conventions, and declarations to which the State makes reference in national legislation; that will assist in the interpretation of the national legal framework. • Since many States incorporate provisions relating to nationality in several different legal instruments, review the Constitution, citizenship acts, decrees, and all sources of national law that might shed light on a State’s law and on its interpretation of the law. • Review bilateral and multilateral agreements adopted in cases of State succession. • When reviewing the domestic legal framework, determine whether the State ensures the adoption and systematic use of safeguards to prevent statelessness from arising as result of deprivation, renunciation, and loss of nationality. When reviewing the national legal framework, try to answer the following questions: On ACQUISITION of nationality • Can children acquire the nationality of the mother, particularly when the father does not have a nationality or is not present? • What is the administrative procedure for registering births? Is it used in practice? Does the State’s nationality legislation provide for the acquisition of citizenship for those born on the State’s territory who would otherwise be stateless? • Is the principle of non-discrimination applied to the rules for nationality? • If the creation of the State was the result of State succession, are the genuine and effective links between the person concerned and the State, the habitual residence of the person concerned at the time of succession, the will of the person concerned, and the territorial origin of the person concerned taken into consideration when determining whether nationality shall be granted to a national of the predecessor State? On LOSS of nationality • Do the provisions relating to a change of marital status or other social status ensure that statelessness is avoided? 48