C.1 India’s international law obligations to prevent and reduce statelessness among children India has signed and ratified the CRC, ICCPR, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (‘CEDAW’) and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’). These four international legal instruments clearly shed light upon the right to nationality of a child, the prevention and reduction of statelessness among children, the right to a name of a child, and the right of immediate birth registration. Article 7(1) of the CRC and Article 24 of the ICCPR encompass the right of every child to acquire a nationality, the right to a name, and the right to an immediate birth registration. Article 18(2) of the CRPD enumerates the three aforementioned rights for disabled children. However, Article 7(2) of the CRC goes further to mandate the following – ‘State parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless’.114 Finally, Article 9 (2) of CEDAW asserts that there are equal rights for men and women with respect to passing nationality on to their children. It is important to note that India did not make any reservations to the specified articles of these four international legal instruments. Hence, they have binding force in law and must be adopted by the Indian state within its domestic citizenship law framework. Emerging customary international law also places an important obligation upon India to prevent and reduce statelessness of children and to grant nationality to stateless children born in its territory. Several international and regional treaties, apart from those listed above, mandate the right to nationality of a child and the prevention and reduction of 114 Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 20 November 1989, entered into force 2 September 1990) 1577 UNTS 3 (CRC) art 7(2). chapter i • status 75 SECTION I.C.1