In other words, how a State exercizes its right to determine its citizens should conform to the relevant provisions in international law. Throughout the 20th century, those provisions gradually developed to favour human rights over claims of State sovereignty. Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares: “Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” This right is founded on the existence of a genuine and effective link between an individual and a State. The first time this link was acknowledged as the basis of citizenship was in a case decided by the International Court of Justice in 1955, the Nottebohm Case. In that case, the Court stated that: “According to the practice of States, to arbitral and judicial decisions and to the opinion of writers, nationality is a legal bond having as its basis a social fact of attachment, a genuine connection of existence, interest and sentiments, together with the existence of reciprocal rights and duties.” The genuine and effective link, made manifest by birth, residency, and/or descent, is now reflected in the provisions of most States’ nationality legislation as well as in recent international instruments relating to nationality, such as the 1997 European Convention on Nationality. Nationality is also defined by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as “the political and legal bond that links a person to a given State and binds him to it with ties of loyalty and fidelity, entitling him to diplomatic protection from that State” (Castillo-Petruzzi et al v. Peru, Judgment of May 1999, IACHR [ser.C] No. 52 1999). How are the rights of refugees and stateless persons protected? Although Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that every person has the right to a nationality, it does not prescribe the specific nationality to which a person is entitled. To ensure that individuals are not deprived of a minimum set of rights associated with nationality, the international community developed two main treaties: the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Is there any link between the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the issue of statelessness? In the aftermath of World War II, one of the most pressing issues for the member States of the newly created United Nations was how to address the needs of the millions of individuals whom the war had left as refugees or had rendered stateless. A 1949 resolution of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) led to the appointment of an Ad Hoc Committee whose task was to consider formulating a Convention on the status of refugees and stateless persons and to consider proposals for eliminating statelessness. 9