European countries. ENS organises its work around three pillars – law and policy development, awareness-raising and capacity-building. ENS provides expert advice and support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. Previous UPR of Bulgaria under the First and Second Cycle 6. Bulgaria was previously reviewed during the 8th and 22nd sessions of the UPR, in 2010 and 2015 respectively. During the first cycle, Bulgaria received five recommendations from Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Germany and Slovenia to accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which it accepted and implemented two years later. During the second cycle, Bulgaria received no recommendations related to nationality and statelessness. Bulgaria’s International obligations 7. Bulgaria acceded to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 2012. However, it retains reservations to Articles 7, 21, 23, 24(1), 24(3), 27, 28 and 31 of the 1954 Convention, which have an impact on the rights of stateless people in the country. So far, reservations to the provisions on identity papers (Article 27) and travel documents (Article 28) have had the most tangible impact in Bulgaria as they have been interpreted by the competent authorities as excluding stateless persons who reside irregularly in Bulgaria from the status of a stateless person or from residence rights in the country. Improvements are expected following the entry into force in October 2019 of amendments to the Bulgarian law. 8. Bulgaria has international obligations to protect the right to a nationality and protect the rights of stateless persons under international and regional treaties to which it is a party. These include, among others the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR - article 24.3), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR - articles. 2.2 and article 3), the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC - articles 2, 3, 7 and 8), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW - article 9), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD - article 5(d)(iii)), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD - article 18) and the International Convention for the Protection of All persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED - article 25). Furthermore, the right to a nationality is protected under Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. 9. Bulgaria has ratified the European Convention on Nationality, but it retains reservations to Articles 11, 12, 16 and 17. These reservations relate to the fact that under Bulgarian law, there is no requirement to provide reasons for decisions on applications to acquire Bulgarian nationality and decisions to deprive persons of their Bulgarian nationality. These decisions are also not subject to appeal. There are no remedies against refusal or deprivation of Bulgarian nationality. Bulgaria is also not a state party to the European Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession. 2