Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2016/05 subject to periodic human rights reviews. During these UPR sessions, State Parties and NGOs make national statements (including specific recommendations) on the human rights situations of the respective countries. This provides a direct opportunity to address states, including those with stateless populations, to acceed to the Statelessness Convention and align themselves with their objectives. Considering that these recommendations are subject to high-level, miniserial consultations in the countries under review, there is certainly a chance to channel an EU position reflecting EU Member States’ joint position. Likewise, treaty bodies 87 closely monitor the implementation of 10 landmark UN Conventions, including CEDAW and CRC, through monitoring Committees. Despite the fact that CEDAW enjoys wide ratification by MENAT countries, several reservations were made in relation to its provisions as listed earlier. However, these treaty bodies (engaging all EU Member States) do have influential power over those UN Member States that have acceeded to the treaties but failed to align themselves with them. The Committees may conduct country inquiries and adopt General Comments interpreting treaty provisions. In addition, six of the treaty bodies (CCPR, CERD, CAT, CEDAW, CRPD, CED,) may receive petitions from individuals claiming their rights under the relevant treaty have been violated by a State party to that treaty. They may bring a communication before the relevant committee, provided that the State has recognized the competence of the committee to receive such complaints and that domestic remedies have been exhausted. In case they find it well-founded, the treaty bodies may initiate country inquiries if they receive reliable information containing well-founded indications of serious, grave or systematic violations of the conventions in a State party.88 In addition, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted on 25 September 2015 in the framework of the landmark New York Declaration sets 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be implementd by 2030;89 goal 16, target 9, call upon States to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration. Accordingly, the SDGs provide a powerful reference tool for influencing those countries that have severe shortcomings in terms of statelessness through the UN avenues. Further to the UN Special Procedures, enhanced co-operation must be established with MENAT regional stakeholders in particular, both in the governmantal and non-governmental sphere to further discussion on issues of mutual interest relating to statelessness. All regional organisations that the EU has established human rights dialogues with have recognised the right to a nationality through adopting (both binding and non-binding) legal instruments. Therefore, statelessness has been touched upon in their human rights agendas, suggesting that there is scope for including the issue of statelessness within these collaborations. For example, ASEAN, where the liberalisation of visa requirements is envisaged to enhance labour migration within the region, is often challenged by stateless individuals coming from ASEAN Member States. Thus, multilateral talks addressing the issue of statelessness could be mutually beneficial in the long term.90 Nevertheless, reflecting back to the underlying context of statelessness in the MENAT region, it must be understood and duly addressed that statelessness per se is often used as a political tool to maintain a certain status quo within the respective societal order of these countries. According to this narrative, they may be counterinterested in changing the societal order, unless there is some kind of leverage at hand. On the other hand, to give a positive example from the MENAT region, Algeria and Morocco have recently reformed their nationality law allowing Algerian and Moroccan women to transmit their nationality to their children born of non-Algerian and non-Moroccan fathers. It is of paramount importance that these legislative reforms have been achieved as a result of collaborative efforts of multiple stakeholders, 87 Treaty bodies are committees of 5 independent experts who monitor the implementation of the 10 major international human rights treaties, including the mentioned landmark Conventions CEDAW, CRC and CERD. 88 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/TreatyBodies.aspx. 89 The goals are set out in paragraph 54 United Nations Resolution A/RES/70/1 of 25 September 2015. 90 Addressing the human rights policy impact of statelessness in the EU’s external action, DG for External Policies, 2014, p. 27-28. 12