26 RAMADAN v. MALTA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION The right to citizenship in international human rights law 2. Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “everyone has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”. A similar recognition of citizenship as a fundamental right can be found in other universal and regional legal instruments, such as Articles 1 to 3 of the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (adopted in 1957 and entered into force in 1958)2, Article 24 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976)3, Article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (adopted in 1979 and entered into force in 1981) 4, Article 29 of the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (approved in 1990 and entered into force in 2003)5, Articles 7 and 8 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 1989 and entered into force in 1990)6, Article 19 of the 1999 Charter for European Security of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe7, Article 18 (1) (a), (b) and (2) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted in 2006 and entered into 2. The Convention has 74 parties, including Malta. 3. The Covenant has 168 parties, including Malta. On the right to nationality as a human right, Human Rights Council Decision 2/111 (27 November 2006), and Resolutions 7/10 (27 March 2008), 10/13 (26 March 2009) and 13/2 (24 March 2010) and the Commission on Human Rights Resolutions 1998/48 (17 April 1998), 1999/28 (26 April 1999), 2005/45 (19 April 2005), and Human Rights Committee General Comment No.17: Article 24 (Rights of the Child), 7 April 1989, §§ 7 and 8. 4. The Convention has 189 parties, including Malta. See paragraph 6 to the commentary of Article 9 of Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) General Recommendation No. 21: Equality in Marriage and Family Relations, 1994. 5. The Convention has 48 parties. 6. The Convention has 196 parties, including Malta. The question which State is responsible in any given instance of statelessness has been answered with reference to the situation of children who are born on the territory of a State who would otherwise be stateless (see UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “I Am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness”, 3 November 2015, and I. Ziemele, “Article 7: The Right to Birth Registration, Name and Nationality and the Right to Know and Be Cared for by Parents”, in Alen, A. et al. (eds.), A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007). In its General Comment No.7, § 25, General Comment No. 9, §§ 35-36, and General Comment No. 11, § 41, the Committee on the Rights of the Child placed special emphasis on birth registration as a means to prevent statelessness of children. 7. Malta is a participating party in the OSCE. The participating parties not only affirmed their “recognition that everyone ha[d] the right to a nationality and that no one should be deprived of his or her nationality arbitrarily”, but also committed themselves “to continue [their] efforts to ensure that everyone can exercise this right” and “to further the international protection of stateless persons”.