16 10.1163/22131035-14020001 | enigbokan The prohibition on discrimination and the principles of equality are key elements of the international human rights treaties. These treaties prohibit ‘distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.’81 Respecting human rights is required of governments, and they have the obligations to protect and fulfil human rights. States have the negative obligation of not acting in a discriminatory manner and the positive obligation to take measures against discrimination.82 It is true that, if the training data is not biased, there is potential to eliminate some human bias.83 But the problem is that it is not clear if the data can be freed of bias. Hence the discriminatory worries are very serious. 3.2.2 Lack of Accurate and Available Data on Stateless Persons and Technical Difficulties in Ensuring ai’s Reliability Training an algorithm on statelessness will require diverse, comprehensive and massive amounts of high-quality data on the nationality information of all countries worldwide. This requires thorough training with sufficient data and testing so that a machine can operate effectively. The challenges in a statelessness determination will be the training data. In terms of data collection, the key to identifying stateless persons would involve collecting a range of data sources that may help indicate whether an individual is stateless or a national of any state. This would include historical data about territorial changes, colonial borders, and legal frameworks on nationality and birth registration (including laws amended and repealed) that have led to people being excluded from citizenship. Also, these sources would include ministerial decrees, regulations, orders, judicial case law (in countries with a tradition of precedent) and, where appropriate, customary practice which includes how officials apply the nationality laws of a State.84 81 82 83 84 Art. 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(iccpr), adopted by UN General Assembly, Resolution 2200A (xxi) of 16 December 1966; entered into force on 23 March 1976; art. 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by General Assembly, UN Doc a/44/49 20 November 1989; entered into force 2 September 1990; General Comment 18: Non-discrimination, adopted at the Thirty-seventh Session of the Human Rights Committee on 10 November 1989, para. 7: defines discrimination as ‘any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on protected features having the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the enjoyment, recognition or exercise by all persons on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms’. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 31 [80], The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant adopted on 29 March 2004 at the 2187th meeting, para. 6; Barbosa and others, (n 1) at 301. Yee-fuing Ng, (n 60) at 675. Handbook on Statelessness, (n 13) paras. 84–85. International Human Rights Law Review (2025) 1–31