ChaChapter 1: Nationality and Statelessness on the basis of this bond, as determined by domestic and international law. It is important to note that there is another word which is in common use and often serves as a synonym for nationality: citizenship. Although in certain legal contexts or specific country situations, the two may have distinct meanings, often in reports on statelessness, nationality and citizenship are used interchangeably and both refer to the aforementioned legal bond with a state.4 That is also how the terms will be used in the present report. A stateless person is someone “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”.5 Statelessness is therefore a term which describes the absence of the legal bond of nationality with any state. This definition of a stateless person is established in the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons which was adopted by the United Nations in 1954. As such, it is firmly grounded in international law. Many other international and regional conventions,6 as well as soft law instruments such as Human Rights Council resolutions, which have been adopted since also reference statelessness, but none sets out to (re) 4 - See further on the definition of nationality and citizenship, as well as the uses of these terms, A. Edwards, “The meaning of nationality in international law in an era of human rights” in A. Edwards and L. van Waas (Eds) Nationality and Statelessness under International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2014. 5 - Article 1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 6 - Including in article 7 of the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam, 2005. 15