Women (CEDAW - see article 9), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD - see article 5(d)(iii)) and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD - see article 18). 10. The UAE has made a number of reservations to: • • CRC, Article 7 – on every child’s right to be registered after birth, a nationality and be cared for by his or her parents;9 and CEDAW, Article 9 – to grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change and retain their nationality, and with respect to the nationality of their children.10 11. In the CRC General Comment No.9 on the rights of children with disabilities, the Committee commented that non-registration of children has “profound consequences for the enjoyment of their human rights, including the lack of citizenship and access to social and health services and to education.”11 In making such comment, the Committee emphasised the importance of full implementation of Article 7. CEDAW also called for the UAE to withdraw its reservations to the Convention to ensure “women fully benefit from all the rights enshrined in the Convention”, further stating that Article 9 is “central to the object and purpose of the Convention and that the reservations impact negatively on the enjoyment by women of their rights.”12 12. On February 2018, the ministerial conference of the League of Arab States, of which the UAE is a member, introduced the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity. Principle 9 of the Declaration calls upon Member States to end gender discrimination in the area of nationality and to take concrete steps to amend laws and legislation relating to women’s rights to confer nationality on children and spouses on an equal basis with men. Principle 14 also urges Member States to reduce statelessness in the context of the international obligations of Member States.13 13. The League of Arab States also adopted, on 15 September 1994, the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Article 24 stipulates that “no citizen shall be arbitrarily denied of his original nationality, nor denied his right to acquire another nationality without legal basis.”14 Snapshot of Statelessness in the United Arab Emirates 14. The full exercise of the right to nationality in the UAE is undercut by the absence of measures that effectively protect stateless persons and by state action that limits access to nationality on a non-discriminatory basis. The UAE’s Nationality Law of 1972 (as 9 For more information, see: https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV11&chapter=4&clang=_en. 10 For more information, see: https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&clang=_en. 11 CRC, ‘General Comment No.9. The Rights of Children with Disabilities’, CRC/C/GC/9, (27 February 2007), para.35, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/461b93f72.html. 12 CEDAW, ‘Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: United Arab Emirates’, CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/1, (5 February 2010), para. 16, available at: https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-ARE-CO-1.pdf. 13 League of Arab States, Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, (28 February 2018), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html. 14 League of Arab States, Arab Charter on Human Rights, (15 September 1994), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b38540.html. 3