38.2 (7) TEMPROSA.DOCX38.2 (7) TEMPROSA.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 2020] STATELESSNESS AS RHETORIC 1/16/2021 12:59 PM 247 Statelessness has been a forgotten human rights crisis, 24 an invisible theme in the history of international law, 25 and generally neglected in the field of human rights. 26 But an examination of the definition of statelessness is of utmost importance given its impact on the lives of people, societies, and States. Re-examining the definition of statelessness is particularly crucial not only for parties to the 1954 Statelessness Convention, which have direct obligations under the Convention, 27 but for all States because they are generally bound by the definition as a matter of customary international law. 28 States also have multifarious treaty obligations on citizenship or nationality, although statelessness is not defined in those other treaties. 29 As such, this Article attempts to make analytic and normative contributions. It offers a critical perspective on international law's statelessness definition. An analytic contribution helps to theorize the disparity and divergence in the results of stateless status determinations. There is a dearth in academic legal discussion 24. Lindsey Kingston, "A Forgotten Human Rights Crisis": Statelessness and Issue (Non)Emergence, 14 HUM. RTS. REV. 73, 80–82 (2013) (arguing that statelessness has "failed to successfully emerge onto the international agenda" because of two factors: issue heterogeneity that creates strategic obstacles, and a lack of widely recognized global solutions encompassing issue characteristics that relate to an issue's potential for change); see also Bill Frelick & Maureeen Lynch, Statelessness: A Forgotten Human Rights Crisis (2015), https://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/sudan/frelick-lynch.pdf (last visited Apr. 15, 2019). 25. See Will Hanley, Statelessness: An Invisible Theme in the History of International Law, 25 EUR. J. INT'L L. 321, 322 (2014) (asserting that while scholars who study statelessness "seem to think that it is, or ought to be, part of international law," scholars of international law tend to view statelessness as a problem of nationality law); see also REFUGEES INT'L , Statelessness: International Blind Spot Linked to Global Concerns (2009), https://reliefweb.int/report/bosnia-and-herzegovina/statelessness-international-blind-spot-linked-global-concerns (last visited Apr. 15, 2019) (calling statelessness a "blind spot"). 26. Michael Freeman, Conclusion: Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Economic and Social Rights, in THE STATE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HUMAN RIGHTS: A GLOBAL OVERVIEW 365, 381–82 (Lanse Minkler ed., 2013) (stating that the field of human rights has even more neglected socioeconomic rights of the stateless). 27. See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties [hereinafter, "VCLT"], art. 26, May 23, 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331. 28. International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Diplomatic Protection with Commentaries, U.N. Doc. A/61/10, at 49 (2006). 29. See, e.g., Convention on the Rights of the Child [hereinafter, "CRC"], arts. 7–8, Nov. 20, 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3; Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women [hereinafter, "CEDAW"], art. 9(2), Dec. 18, 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [hereinafter, "ICCPR"], art. 24(3), Dec. 19, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 18, Mar. 30, 2007, 2515 U.N.T.S. 3; International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, art. 25(4), Dec. 20, 2006, 2716 U.N.T.S. 3; International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, art. 29, Dec. 18, 1990, 2220 U.N.T.S. 3; Convention on the Nationality of Married Women, arts. 1–3, Jan. 29, 1957, 309 U.N.T.S. 65. See also, for the various instruments, David Weissbrodt & Clay Collins, The Human Rights of Stateless Persons, 28 HUM. RTS. Q. 245, 246 (2006).