4. ADDRESSING STATELESSNESS THROUGH THE RIGHTS TO EQUALITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION the basis upon which numerous specific international human rights treaties have been adopted.30 Further, most States have constitutional provisions and some form of civil law protection against discrimination and an increasing number are adopting comprehensive equality laws, which include a variety of protections such as freedom from direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and, in some cases, obligations on the State to take positive measures to tackle historical disadvantage. The legal framework on equality has developed from and comprises the growing body of international human rights treaties set out above, together with relevant regional and national laws and jurisprudence, custom and best practice. In 2009, key elements of the framework were identified in the Declaration of Principles on Equality, a set of principles developed and launched by the Equal Rights Trust following consultations with 128 human rights and equality experts from 47 countries in different regions of the world.31 In the analysis which follows, references are made to these various sources, with best practice approaches identified and applied to the issue of solving statelessness. Two preliminary points are important to note at the outset. First, any consideration of the equality framework in the context of statelessness has to recognise that States have, as a matter of international law and practice, been granted significant latitude to discriminate between citizens and non-citizens in the enjoyment of a large number of rights including, in particular, civic rights and social and economic rights. Hannah Arendt famously said that the right to a nationality is the “right to have rights”.32 Against this backdrop, it is perhaps unsurprising 30 31 32 November 1969, entry into force 18 July 1978, OAS Treaty Series No. 36, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, 27 June 1981, entry into force 21 October 1986, CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5 and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration all have non-discrimination provisions. For example, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, entry into force 3 September 1981, 1249 UNTS 13; Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, entry into force 4 January 1969, 660 UNTS 195; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, supra n23; and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 20 November 1989, entry into force 2 September 1990, 1577 UNTS 3. Equal Rights Trust, Declaration of Principles on Equality, supra n4. H. Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951. This statement has been widely quoted since as a narrative equating statelessness to lack of rights 108