302 D. Owen The opening article of the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws registered the need for a nationality, stating ‘that every person should have a nationality and should have one nationality only’. In the postwar period, Article 15(1) of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) states that ‘Everyone has the right to a nationality’, while Article 24(3) of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which entered into force in 1976 states: ‘Every child has the right to acquire a nationality.’ The period between the UNDHR and the ICCPR saw the emergence of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons5 and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness6 designed to address and resolve the problem of de jure statelessness.7 These developments can be seen as representing the juridical elements in the political project of constructing the right to have the right to a nationality. Before we turn to explore how de jure statelessness arises and its implications for our concerns, however, we should briefly consider the concept of having an ‘effective nationality’. In the ‘Prato Conclusions’ summarising the outcomes of a 2010 UNHCR expert meeting on the Concept of Stateless Persons under International Law, it was noted: For the purposes of the 1954 Convention, ‘national’ is to be understood by reference to whether the State in question regards holders of a particular status as persons over whom it has jurisdiction on the basis of a link of nationality. Several participants were of the view that in practice it is difficult to differentiate between the possession of a nationality and its effects, including, at a minimum, the right to enter and reside in the State of nationality and to return to it from abroad, as well as the right of the State to exercise diplomatic protection. Otherwise, according to this view, nationality is emptied of any content.8 5 The 1954 Convention is designed to ensure that stateless people enjoy a minimum set of human rights. It establishes the legal definition of a stateless person. The 1954 Convention also establishes minimum standards of treatment for stateless people in respect to a number of rights. These include, but are not limited to, the right to education, employment and housing. Importantly, the 1954 Convention also guarantees stateless people a right to identity, travel documents and administrative assistance. There were 83 states party to the 1954 Convention in November 2014 when teams at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched the Campaign to End Statelessness in 10 years. There are now 89—compare 154 to the 1951 Refugee Convention. 6 The 1961 Convention aims to prevent statelessness and reduce it over time. It establishes an international framework to ensure the right of every person to a nationality. It requires that states establish safeguards in their nationality laws to prevent statelessness at birth and later in life. Perhaps the most important provision of the convention establishes that children are to acquire the nationality of the country in which they are born if they do not acquire any other nationality. It also sets out important safeguards to prevent statelessness due to loss or renunciation of nationality and state succession. The convention also sets out the very limited situations in which states can deprive a person of his or her nationality, even if this would leave them stateless. There were 61 states party to the 1961 Convention in November 2014 when teams at UNHCR launched the Campaign to End Statelessness in 10 Years. There are now 67. 7 For an important recent analysis of the implementation of the 1954 Convention in the European Union, see Bianchini (2018). 8 UNHCR (2010), para. B7. 123