Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 30th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Cameroon Introduction 1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) makes this submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in relation to the right to nationality, statelessness1 and related human rights in Cameroon. 2. ISI is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion through a combination of research, education, partnerships and advocacy. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Over the past two years, the Institute has made over 20 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 28th UPR Sessions.2 3. This submission highlights four main challenges in the realisation of every person’s right to acquire a nationality and avoidance of statelessness: I. II. III. IV. Childhood statelessness Birth Registration Discriminatory practices in nationality legislation Access to nationality for vulnerable groups 4. This submission draws on the Institute’s 2016 submission on Cameroon to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which contains a more detailed analysis of the issues presented here.3 The Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon under the Second Cycle 5. Cameroon was under review in July 2013 during the Sixteenth Session of the Second Cycle. Djibouti recommended that Cameroon accedes to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.4 This recommendation was supported and noted by Cameroon. However, it has not yet acceded to the 1961 Convention. 1 According to Article 1.1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, a stateless person is someone “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.” It is estimated that there are at least 15 million stateless people worldwide. 2 For more information on the Institute’s UPR advocacy, see http://www.statelessnessandhumanrights.org/upr-universal-periodicreview/resources-database. 3 ISI, Civil Society Submission on the right of every child to acquire a nationality under Article 7 CRC http://www.institutesi.org/CRC_Cameroon_2016.pdf. 4 131.23; Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961, http://www.unhcr.org/enus/protection/statelessness/3bbb286d8/convention-reduction-statelessness.html. 1