3 of Stateless Persons (1954) and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961) appear to acquire even greater relevance nowadays, given the disturbing persistence of cases of loss of nationality and statelessness. 9. The 1954 Convention sought to protect stateless persons, without attempting to be a substitute for the attribution and acquisition of nationality. The 1961 Convention seeks the attribution and acquisition or retention of nationality, to reduce or avoid statelessness. It incorporates general principles of relevant international law, which have been a source of inspiration for both new international instruments (such as the 1997 European Convention on Nationality) and new national laws on nationality. I consider that the 1961 Convention pronounced one of those general principles that belong to both international treaty-based law and general international law when it determines in its Article 1(1), that "each Contracting State shall grant its nationality to the persons born within its territory who would otherwise be stateless,” the mentioned 1961 Convention states, in my opinion, one o those general principles of treaty-based and general International Law. II. The legal response to the disturbing diversification of the manifestations of statelessness 10. Despite normative progress in this sphere, it is regrettable that the causes of statelessness continue to exist and are perhaps compounded nowadays, insofar as they are sometimes combined with current population displacements (intrinsic to the socalled “globalized” world in which we live). Among the causes of statelessness are situations and practices such as those revealed in this Case of the Yean and Bosico Children versus the Dominican Republic (in which the children Dilcia Yean and Violeta Bosico, whose mothers are Dominican and whose fathers are Haitian, were deprived of nationality and remained stateless for more than four years and four months), in addition to other causes, such as conflicts concerning laws on nationality, laws on marriage (particularly, with regard to married women), situations of children who have been abandoned and whose births have not been registered, and discriminatory administrative practices. 6 11. The persistence of causes of statelessness constitutes a disturbing picture, because the possession of a nationality is a basic requirement for the exercise of other individual rights, such as political rights, and the right of access to education and healthcare, along with so many others. Nowadays, the de jure stateless persons are joined by the de facto stateless persons, i.e., those who are unable to prove their nationality, and those without an effective nationality (for the effects of protection). Nowadays, the de facto stateless persons – whose registration documents have often been confiscated or destroyed by those who control and exploit them – are multiplying, owing to the barbarian practice of the “invisible” trafficking of human beings (especially children and women) throughout the world.7 This is a widespread contemporary tragedy. 6 . For example, transfers of territory (in cases of dissolution or succession of States and changes in borders), loss of nationality owing to de-nationalization, loss of nationality through waiver without prior acquisition of another nationality. 7 . Cf., e.g. R. Piotrowicz, "Victims of Trafficking and De Facto Statelessness", 21 Refugee Survey Quarterly - UNHCR/Geneva (2002), pp. 50-59.