IS THE 1961 CONVENTION THE ONLY INSTRUMENT RELEVANT TO THE PREVENTION AND REDUCTION OF STATELESSNESS? N o. Many other international legal instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognize the right to a nationality and have an impact on how States should deal with the prevention and reduction of statelessness. Examples include: • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which obliges States to guarantee the enjoyment of the right to a nationality without distinction as to race, colour or national or ethnic origin; • Convention on the Rights of the Child which affirms the right of every child to acquire a nationality; • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which requires equality between men and women in respect of acquisition, change and retention of nationality and the transmission of nationality to children. In addition, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, besides providing for special protective measures for stateless persons, calls upon States to facilitate naturalization in the context of resolving statelessness. There are also relevant regional standards helping to prevent and reduce statelessness such as Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 20 of the American Convention on Human Rights, Article 7 of the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam and a series of provisions in the European Convention on Nationality. Many States have therefore already taken on important international obligations for the promotion of the right to a nationality. These obligations are complementary to those in the 1961 Convention. However, the 1961 Convention remains the only instrument offering common universal safeguards for the avoidance of statelessness. It thereby addresses nationality problems which may occur within a specific region but also those problems which require application of common rules by States in different regions. 6 Preventing and R e d u c i n g S t a t e l e ss n e ss