MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA An explicit and general prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality can be found in numerous international instruments. In particular, it is worth noting that article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly provides that no one should be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality. The General Assembly, in its resolution 50/152, also recognized the fundamental nature of the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality.1 3.2 Statelessness in Regional Law Within Europe a number of specific laws and conventions exist to augment the international laws on statelessness. Prime among these are the conventions of the Council of Europe. One of the first actions of the newly-formed Council of Europe in 1950 was to draft the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It entered into force in September of 1953 for the existing members and all new members are expected to sign and ratify it at the earliest possible opportunity. The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights, so that any person who feels their fundamental rights have been violated may seek a judgement that would be binding on any member state. The European Convention on Nationality which came into force in March 2000 and has subsequently been signed and ratified by Albania. Article 6 expressly requires signatories to “facilitate” the acquisition of nationality and refers explicitly to stateless persons. Article 5 prohibits any form of discrimination in a state’s nationality laws that relates to sex, religion, race, colour or national or ethnic origin. The second CoE instrument is the Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession, from 2006. This Convention also expressly forbids discrimination (Article 4) and Article 3 sets out that states should have a clear goal, “The elimination of statelessness is to be achieved by application of the set of principles and rules contained in the Convention”. Yet, at the time of the writing of this report, Albania is not a signatory to this Convention. The other regional institutions have also set out laws and conventions that urge states to act to end statelessness in a just and equitable manner. One can mention notably: Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, soft law from the OSCE, minority rights and anti-discrimination law from the European Union and constitutional advice from the CoE Venice Commission. UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018 27