A/HRC/13/34 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 10/13, the Human Rights Council requested the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the right to nationality with emphasis on the issue of arbitrary deprivation of nationality including in cases of State succession, taking into account the information gathered pursuant to Council resolution 7/10, similar studies conducted by the Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and other relevant sources of information, and to present it to the Council at its thirteenth session. The present report is submitted in accordance with that request. 2. The present report recalls the legal framework applicable to the right to a nationality and analyses different aspects of the right to a nationality, including the right to acquire, change and retain a nationality. It also analyses the obligation of the State to avoid statelessness and to refrain from arbitrarily depriving persons of their nationality, including in situations of State succession. The comments and advice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees used in the preparation of this report are gratefully acknowledged. II. Legal framework 3. In its resolutions 7/10 and 10/13, the Council, taking into account article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reaffirmed that the right to a nationality is a fundamental human right. The right to a nationality is recognized in a series of international legal instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The issue of nationality is also regulated in the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. In this respect, to understand fully the extent of the regulation of the right to a nationality as a fundamental right, it is important to recall the specific norms and principles spelled out in these instruments. 4. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to a nationality. It also indicates that no one should be arbitrarily deprived of their nationality, nor denied the right to change it. 5. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in article 5 (d) (iii), provides that States parties undertake to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms, and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of, inter alia, the right to nationality. 6. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also provides, in article 24 (3), that every child has the right to acquire a nationality. 7. Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that children should be registered immediately after birth and have the right from birth to, inter alia, acquire a nationality, and that States parties should ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with national law and international obligations, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless. According to article 8, States parties should undertake to GE.09-17512 3