Customary International Law Requiring States to Grant Nationality to Stateless Children Born in Their Territory

In the most recent few years, customary international law is increasingly crystalizing to affirm that states must grant nationality to children born in their territory, if they would be otherwise stateless. In prior scholarship, this author has argued that such a norm of a customary international law was beginning to emerge based on years of slowly accumulating practice. In the years since that research was published, state practice has begun to evolve rapidly. This article will assess this quickly moving field that affirms the emergence of a rule of customary international law. Now, under customary international law, stateless children can identify the state where they were born as the state that must grant them nationality, if no other state will.To a large degree, this quickly evolving practice is due to the UNHCR #IBelong campaign to reduce statelessness. Due to this campaign, states are increasingly reforming their practices to provide for nationality from birth for stateless children, and they are also increasingly revising and expressing the opinion that such a solution is desirable, necessary and morally compelling. Today, thanks in large part to the UNHCR’s efforts, the international community can now conclude confidentially that state practice and opinio juris support a norm that states have an obligation to grant nationality to children born in their states, when the child would be otherwise stateless.This article will update the prior research with the most recent, and quickly changing, practice and expressions of opinio juris, partly as influenced and documented by the UNHCR as a part of the #IBelong campaign. In doing so, it will explore a case study where the influence of an international organization can push states to revise their practice and develop new views on the law. It will conclude by confirming that this norm surely exists under customary international law