Chapter 3. The Council of Europe including a definition of state succession. State succession is defined in accordance with what has been accepted in other international legal instruments on the matter576: it is the replacement of one state by another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory.577 Another important point that follows from the definitions of this Convention, is that even though statelessness is defined in the same way as in Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention, the ECSS is only relevant to those situations in which statelessness occurred or will occur as a consequence of state succession. It thus does not concern people who are already stateless before state succession or who become stateless after state succession due to causes that are not related to state succession.578 The other general provisions contain principles that are similar to those contained in the ECN: the right to a nationality (Article 2), the prevention of statelessness (in particular in the context of state succession, Article 3) and the principle of non-discrimination (Article 4). The articles that lie at the heart of the ECSS, are Articles 5 and 6. Article 5 considers the responsibility of the successor state and Article 6 deals with the responsibility of the predecessor state. Other articles of the ECSS concern issues relating to the avoidance of statelessness in the context of state succession. They include respect for the expressed will of an individual, rules of proof, facilitated acquisition of nationality, avoidance of statelessness at birth, the provision of information and procedural guarantees. Furthermore, Articles 13 and 14 of the ECSS stress the importance of international agreement and international cooperation. Also, the Convention provides that it is not retroactive (unless declared otherwise by the state in question)579 and does not prejudice more favorable provisions, the application of the ECN and its more general provisions on state succession in chapter VI, or other binding international instruments insofar as they are compatible with the ECSS in the relations between states bound by these instruments.580 What is striking throughout the rules provided in the ECSS, is that they are in many ways similar to or based on the provisions of the ECN. As such, it is clearly relevant to the prevention and resolution of statelessness from a more general perspective, but it is also of limited relevance because it only concerns statelessness resulting from state succession. These matters are discussed more elaborately in section 3.3. 576 577 578 579 580 The Vienna Convention on the Succession of States in Respect of Treaties (1978), the Vienna Convention on the Succession of States in respect of State Property, Archives and Debts (1983), the ILC Draft Articles on Nationality of Natural Persons in relation to the Succession of States (1999). See also CoE, Explanatory Report to the Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession (Strasbourg, 19 May 2006, CETS No. 200) para 6 <https://rm.coe.int/ CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=09000016800d3815> accessed 26 May 2021. Art 1(a) ECSS. Art 1(c) ECSS; CoE, Explanatory Report to the Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession (Strasbourg, 19 May 2006, CETS No. 200) para 9. Art 15 ECSS. Art 16 ECSS. Intersentia 111