International Obligations and the United States Framework Apart from the 1954 and 1961 Conventions on Statelessness, there are other international documents that address the right to nationality and the protection of those who have none. The United States is bound by some of these. The United States also has its own legal framework through which it views issues relating to citizenship and statelessness. These are discussed below as a means to provide insight into the solutions that would best fit within the existing laws and policies to address statelessness in the United States. The principal concern in the U.S. context is to provide protection—rights and responsibilities—to stateless individuals residing in the United States It is particularly with this concern in mind that the international framework is discussed. International Instruments and Obligations There are a number of international instruments that address or at least implicate the responsibilities of States to stateless individuals within their territory. Among these is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,63 which, although not a binding treaty, is the foundational document in modern human rights law, and some of its provisions are widely viewed as customary international law.64 The Universal Declaration explicitly articulates a right to nationality and, although it has not been officially recognized as customary international law, it is, at a minimum, a significant guiding principle in protecting the human rights of every individual. Solutions for the Stateless in the U.S. Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 15 (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. The universal human right to a nationality is mirrored in other international instruments relevant to the prevention of statelessness that the United States has ratified.65 One such example is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, one of the core international human rights treaties, which provides: “Every child has the right to acquire a nationality”.66 The United States has also ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which establishes that “States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone…to nationality”.67 By ratifying these international instruments, the United States has bound itself to the obligation to respect and ensure human rights, including the right to nationality. Unfortunately, the United States has not enacted national legislation that would provide a means for these obligations to be legally enforceable rights within the United States.68 15