Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/08 contain implicit obligations for States to identify stateless persons.24 These are as follows: the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 3), the right to liberty and security of person (Article 5), the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8), the right to an effective remedy (Article 13), and the prohibition of discrimination (Article 14). 25 In practice, access to litigation for these rights at the ECtHR is extremely limited for stateless persons. The Council of Europe is also a platform for drafting and adopting regional conventions which may reinforce and complement existing universal human rights obligations. The European Convention on Nationality (hereinafter: ECN) pronounces the right to a nationality.26 Adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2000, this regional legal instrument contains important safeguards for the avoidance of statelessness, along similar lines to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.27 By the end of 2017, only 21 states have ratified the ECN.28 The Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession also contains provisions that encourage States to facilitate naturalisation and to adopt favourable nationality laws, tailored to the phenomenon of statelessness as the aftermath of state succession.29 Nonetheless, in the 11 years since it has been open for signatures, only seven countries have ratified it.30 Although the obligation of establishing statelessness determination procedures is not pronounced in any CoE convention in an explicit manner, implicit obligations for statelessness determination should be addressed through codification. 2.3. Statelessness in the law of the European Union The law of the European Union is a sui generis legal order that has significant added value and primacy to national legal systems, currently binding on 28 Member States.31 When a provision of EU law is directly applicable, or has direct effect, the primacy of EU law means that national authorities are required to apply the provision of EU law instead of any conflicting provision of domestic law.32 If the provision of EU law is not directly applicable, or does not have direct effect, ensuring the primacy of EU law is left to the legal system of each Member State, id est the norm subject to the requirement of interpreting national legislation consistently with EU law.33 Provisions regarding the status of stateless persons are found both in primary and secondary EU law, however, there is no explicit obligation for statelessness determination under the aegis of the European Union. 24 Caia Vlieks, ‘A European Human Rights Obligation for Statelessness Determination?’, p. 19, available at: http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=132988 [accessed 12 November 2016] 25 European Network on Statelessness, ‘Strategic Litigation: An Obligation for Statelessness Determination under the European Convention on Human Rights?’ (2014), European Network on Statelessness Discussion Paper 09/14, available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/ENS%20Discussion%20P aper_September%202014.pdf [accessed 27 March 2017] 26 Article 4(a), European Convention on Nationality, Strasbourg, 06/11/1997, in force 01/03/2000, ETS No. 166. 27 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, New York, 30 August 1961, in force 13 December 1975, 14458 UNTS 989, 175. 28 Luxembourg ratified it on 19 September 2017. 29 Council of Europe Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to State succession, Strasbourg, 19/05/2006, in force 01/05/2009, CETS No. 200. 30 Luxembourg ratified it on 16 October 2017. 31 On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom invoked Article 50 of the TFEU, entering an irreversible procedure of leaving the European Union. This paper nonetheless addresses the United Kingdom as part of the European Union, as EU law still applies to it at the time of writing. 32 Giorgio Gaja, ‘European Community and Union Law and Domestic (Municipal) Law’, in Rüdiger Wolfrum (ed.), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014. 33 Ibid. 8