59 protection for all individuals. 142. States have the obligation not to adopt practices or laws concerning the granting of nationality, the application of which fosters an increase in the number of stateless persons. This condition arises from the lack of a nationality, when an individual does not qualify to receive this under the State’s laws, owing to arbitrary deprivation or the granting of a nationality that, in actual fact, is not effective. Statelessness deprives an individual of the possibility of enjoying civil and political rights and places him in a condition of extreme vulnerability. 143. The Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which was signed by the Dominican Republic on December 5, 1961, was ratified by 26 States, and entered into force on December 13, 1975. Its Article 1 establishes that States shall grant nationality to a person born in their territory who would otherwise be stateless. This Convention establishes that nationality shall be granted at birth, by operation of law, or upon an application being lodged with the appropriate authority, by or on behalf of the person concerned, in the manner prescribed by the national law, and that this application may not be rejected unless the person concerned does not comply with the following list of conditions, to which the State may subordinate the granting of its nationality: (a) That the application is lodged during a period, fixed by the Contracting State, beginning not later than at the age of eighteen years and ending not earlier than at the age of twenty-one years, so, however, that the person concerned shall be allowed at least one year during which he may himself make the application without having to obtain legal authorization to do so; (b) That the person concerned has habitually resided in the territory of the Contracting State for such period as may be fixed by that State, not exceeding five years immediately preceding the lodging of the application nor ten years in all; (c) That the person concerned has neither been convicted of an offence against national security nor has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of five years or more on a criminal charge; (d) That the person concerned has always been stateless. * * * 144. According to the facts of the instant case, the children Dilcia Yean and Violeta Bosico were born in the Dominican Republic on April 15, 1996, and March 13, 1985, respectively, and they have grown up and lived there. Also, their mothers, Leonidas Oliven Yean and Tiramen Bosico Cofi, are of Dominican nationality and have lived in the Dominican Republic, and the children’s fathers are Haitians (supra paras. 109(6) and 109(7)). 145. On March 5, 1997, when Dilcia Yean was 10 months old and Violeta Bosico was 12 years old, the children applied for late registration of their births before the Civil Status Registry Office of Sabana Grande de Boyá. These applications for late registration were rejected by the Registrar, who considered that the documents presented by the children were insufficient for late registration, based on a list of eleven requirements (supra paras. 109(14), 109(17) and 109(18)). On September 11, 1997, the children had recourse to the Public Prosecutor of the Judicial District of Monte Plata, who confirmed the Registrar’s decision on July 20, 1988, and ratified the rejection, because the late registration “was not supported by the documentation and procedure established for this course of action,” based on a list containing twelve requirements for late registration of birth (supra paras. 109(19) and 109(20)).