Sixty years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights confirmed the right of everyone to a nationality. Two supplementary transnational instruments have since been promulgated to enhance protection and reduce statelessness: the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Their still too limited ratification is a source of concern, stemming in part as it does from a lack of understanding as to the extent of the problem and the severity of the consequences. Moreover, even where these issues may be appreciated, there are still the sovereignty concerns to overcome. Specifically, it is intended to assist States, UNHCR and partners to better understand the causes of statelessness, the consequences and the protection …show more content…
Causes of statelessness and why it occurs: Statelessness has two main causes: 1) Direct discrimination: When a state deprives certain religious or ethnic groups of citizenship for political reasons, or when people are displaced from or rejected by their country. 2) Structural inadequacies: This includes unregistered births and in certain countries, women’s inability to pass their citizenship to their children. It is estimated that 12 to 15 million individuals currently have no citizenship. Additionally, another major cause of statelessness is the actuality of gaps in a country's legal system relating to nationality. Every country has laws, which are founded under what circumstances an individual procures nationality or can have it inhibited. If nationality laws are not carefully written and properly applied, people can be barred and left stateless. An age-old example is of children found in countries who are of unknown parentage (foundlings). If nationality can only be acquired based on ancestry from a national, these children can be left