Acknowledgements. Foreword. Introduction. The international legal framework for the right to a nationality and for the reduction of statelessness. Preventing statelessness. UNHCR´s role. How parliamentarians can help. ANNEXES. 1. State Parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. States Parties to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Model instrument of accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Statelessness Persons. Model instrument of accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Model instrument of accession to the 1961 Convention on Reduction of Statelessness. IPU and UNHCR in brief.

INTRODUCTION. **Those of us who are citizens of a country usually take for granted the rights and obligations that citizenship confers on us. Most of us can enroll our children in schools, seek medical attention when we are sick, apply for employment when we need to, and vote to elect our representatives in government. We feel we have a stake in the country in which we live; we feel a profound sense of belonging to something greater than our individual selves. But what is life like for persons who have no nationality, who are stateless?. Without citizenship, a person cannot register to vote in the country in which they are living, cannot apply for a travel document, cannot register to marry.  In some instances, individuals who are stateless and are outside their country of origin or country of former residence can be detained for long periods if those countries refuse to grant them re-entry to their territories. Often, even the most basic of rights-the rights to education, medical care, and employment-are denied to individuals who cannot prove the link of nationality with a country**, the editors.

Inter-Parliamentary Union. The UN Refugee Agency. (2010). Handbook for parliamentarians :Nationality and Statelessness Handbook for parliamentarians :Nationality and Statelessness ; Handbook for Parliamentarians ([No definido] ed.). IUP.