4. Reduction and prevention of statelessness 4.1 Introduction The 1961 Convention is the leading international instrument that provides rules for the conferral and withdrawal of citizenship to prevent cases of statelessness from arising. By setting out rules to limit the occurrence of statelessness, the Convention gives effect to Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes that “everyone has the right to a nationality.” By adopting the 1961 Convention safeguards that prevent statelessness, States contribute to the reduction of statelessness over time. The Convention seeks to balance the rights of individuals with the interests of States by establishing general rules for the prevention of statelessness, while simultaneously allowing some exceptions to those rules. A central focus of the Convention is the prevention of statelessness at birth by requiring States to grant citizenship to persons born on their territory, or born to their nationals abroad, who would otherwise be stateless. To prevent statelessness in such cases, States may either grant nationality to children automatically at birth or subsequently upon application. States must also ensure that foundlings and persons born stateless on a ship or aircraft acquire a nationality. The UNHCR Guidelines provide interpretative legal guidance on the application of these articles in the 1961 Convention.189 The Convention further seeks to prevent statelessness later in life by prohibiting the withdrawal of citizenship from a State’s nationals – either through loss, renunciation, or deprivation of nationality – when doing so would result in statelessness. Only under a few limited exceptional circumstances does the Convention allow for the withdrawal of nationality resulting in statelessness. The 1961 Convention further seeks to prevent statelessness upon a change in civil status. This is complemented by Article 9 of CEDAW, which grants women equal rights with men to acquire, change, or retain nationality, in particular in the context of marriage. The safeguards of the 1961 Convention are triggered only where statelessness would otherwise arise and for individuals who have a link with the Contracting State. The provisions of the 1961 Convention must be read and interpreted in light of developments in international law, in particular international human rights law. Relevant instruments include the ICCPR, CEDAW, and the CRC, which is of paramount importance in determining the scope of the 1961 Convention obligations to prevent statelessness among children. Article 7 of the CRC sets out that every child has the right to acquire a nationality. The drafters of the CRC saw a clear link between this right and the 1961 Convention and therefore specified in Article 7(2) of the CRC that “States Parties shall ensure the implementation of 189 56 UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child’s Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 21 December 2012, HCR/GS/12/04, available at: http://refworld.org/docid/50d460c72.html. M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N S W E D E N