ICCPR INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS Kyrgyzstan: A stateless Dolmari Woman holds her old Soviet Union passport, 2015. © UNHCR/Gabrielle Menezes Quick Reference Guide STATELESSNESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES This reference guide highlights key international human rights provisions found in the ICCPR that are directly relevant to preventing and reducing statelessness and protecting stateless persons. It is addressed to all stakeholders who may wish to use this international human rights instrument to improve the enjoyment of human rights by stateless persons and to resolve the problem, thereby helping to meet the goals of the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness. A stateless person is someone “who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law,” according to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. The ICCPR addresses statelessness through a number of provisions, including through its provisions on non-discrimination (Article 2), equality between men and women (Articles 3 and 23), and the right of every child to acquire a nationality (Article 24). A number of General Comments (GC) of the Human Rights Committee further inform the meaning of these provisions when using them to address statelessness. Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness Article 3 & Article 23: “...equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights” & “...equality of rights...of spouses as to marriage...” In more than 60 States, women do not have the same rights as men with regard to acquisition, change or retention of nationality upon change in civil status.1 This can lead to statelessness where a foreign woman is required to renounce her nationality upon marrying yet does not automatically acquire the nationality of her husband. Ensuring gender equality in the transmission of nationality is necessary to prevent statelessness, particularly amongst children. • GC No. 28: Article 3 (The Equality of Rights Between Men and Women) & GC No. 19: Article 23 (The Family) Protection of the Family, the Right to Marriage and Equality of the Spouses: “States parties should ensure that no sex-based discrimination occurs in respect of the acquisition or loss of nationality by reason of marriage, of residence rights, (…)” (para. 25 & para. 7 respectively). Article 24: “Every child shall be registered immediately after birth...” and “Every child has the right to acquire a nationality.” Lack of birth registration can make it difficult for individuals to prove that they have the relevant links to a State that entitle them to a nationality, and can therefore create a risk of statelessness. In 27 States, women are unable to confer nationality to their children on an equal basis as men. Gender inequality in nationality laws can create statelessness where children cannot acquire nationality from their fathers, where, for example, the father is stateless or the mother is not married.2 More than half the States in the world lack or have inadequate safeguards in their nationality laws to grant nationality to children born stateless in their territory. • GC No. 28: (The Equality of Rights Between Men and Women) “States parties must ensure that the matrimonial regime contains equal rights and obligations for both spouses with regard to (…) the capacity to transmit to children the parent’s nationality (…)” (para. 25).