Chapter 1. Introduction a case, the state whose nationality he last possessed is bound to admit this person, at the request of said foreign state if he is permanently indigent or has been sentenced to imprisonment.114 Both Protocols are, therefore, quite limited in scope and relevance to preventing and solving statelessness – in particular in light of the range of legal instruments on human rights, nationality and statelessness existing today. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1948, contains – for the first time – a human right to a nationality and the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality in Article 15. Furthermore, Article 2 contains a non-discrimination clause. This entails that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the UDHR, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. This means that no one should be discriminated in claiming their right to a nationality, which helps to prevent statelessness. The UDHR is a non-binding legal instrument, but has been very influential. Also, many of its provisions are now binding international law because they are currently part of international customary law or have been included in treaties.115 The inclusion of the right to a nationality in the UDHR was not uncontroversial. Nonetheless, the entire article was eventually adopted, indicating that many states accepted that there are certain human rights aspects to nationality.116 By proclaiming that every individual has the right to a nationality, the individual was introduced “as an actor in relation to matters traditionally decided exclusively by states”.117 The right to a nationality as provided for in the UDHR was not transposed into other UN treaties, but aspects of it can be found in many legal instruments. These are discussed in more depth below. In 1957, a treaty relating to both the 1930 Convention and the UDHR was adopted: the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1957 Convention).118 Where the 1930 Convention still accepted inequality between men and women in nationality matters and included provisions to mitigate the risk of statelessness resulting from this inequality, the 1957 Convention explicitly recognizes in its preamble everyone’s right to a nationality pursuant to the UDHR. Even if this treaty does not prescribe complete equality between men and women in nationality matters, it does go a step further than the 1930 Convention by providing that the nationality of the wife is not automatically affected in certain circumstances, thus rendering Articles 8 and 9 of the 1930 Convention obsolete.119 As such, the 1957 Convention is a relevant document 114 115 116 117 118 119 Art 1 Special Protocol Concerning Statelessness. Cf John Dugard, ‘The Influence of the Universal Declaration as Law’ (2009) 24 Maryland Journal of International Law 85. Ineta Ziemele & Gunnar G Schram, ‘Article 15’ in Gudmundur Alfredsson & Asbjørn Eide, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A Common Standard of Achievement (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1999) 297–323, 300–302. Ibid 297–323, 297–298. Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (adopted 20 February 1957, entered into force 11 August 1958) 309 UNTS 65 (1957 Convention). Gerard-René de Groot & Olivier Willem Vonk, International Standards on Nationality Law. Text, Cases and Materials (Wolf Legal Publishers 2015) 151. Art 8 and 9 1930 Convention assumed that Intersentia 29