Addressing Statelessness through ICERD In general international human rights discourse, states have, next to respecting and protecting the human rights of persons under their jurisdiction, a duty to fulfil the rights under the ICERD. 131 The HRC stipulates that states have an obligation to ‘adopt legislative, administrative, educative and other appropriate measures in order to fulfil their legal obligations’ with regard to the civil and political rights outlined in the ICCPR. 132 On the right to nationality, it states in General Comment No 17 that states are ‘required to adopt every appropriate measure … to ensure that every child has a nationality when he is born’. 133 The CRC provides similar guidance on how to facilitate the right to nationality to children. 134 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women adopted General Recommendation No 25 on ‘temporary special measures’ under art 4(1) of the CEDAW, in which it requires states to take measures ‘to accelerate the improvement of the position of women to achieve their de facto or substantive equality with men’. 135 The 1954 Convention stipulates that states should facilitate naturalisation and ‘in particular make every effort to expedite naturalisation proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings’. 136 The ICERD prescribes a broad array of measures to ensure the goal of equal access to the rights identified in art 5 and requires states to pursue equal access to nationality ‘by all appropriate means’, which could include taking ‘special and concrete measures’. 137 Furthermore, General Recommendation No 25 clarifies that states have a positive obligation to correct existing inequalities of certain groups. 138 In only a few of its Concluding Observations, the Committee gets concrete on what exact steps states should take in order to fulfil the right to a nationality. For example, on Georgia, it recommended: ‘that the State Party take effective measures to reduce the risk of statelessness and ensure that all stateless persons, including children born in the State Party who would otherwise be stateless, are granted nationality without undue administrative obstacles’. 139 131 Frédéric Mégret, ‘Nature of Obligations’ in Daniel Moeckli, Sangeeta Shah and Sandesh 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 Sivakumaran (eds), International Human Rights Law (1st edn, Oxford University Press 2010) 131. United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 31: The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, UN Doc CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13 (26 May 2004) [7]. GC 17 UN Doc HRI/GEN/1/Rev.9 (n 79) [8]. CRC (n 7) art 7(1). In its General Comment 7, the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends that ‘States Parties take all necessary measures to ensure that all children are registered at birth’. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No 7 (2005): Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood, UN Doc CRC/C/GC/7/Rev.1 (20 September 2006) [25]. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No 25, on Article 4, Paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on Temporary Special Measures, UN Doc HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7 (12 May 2004) [15]; CEDAW (n 7) art 4(1). 1954 Convention (n 5) art 32. ICERD (n 3) art 2. GR 32, UN Doc CERD/C/GC/32 (n 21). Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observation on the Sixth to Eighth Periodic Reports of Georgia, UN Doc CERD/C/GEO/CO/6-8 (13 May 2016) [22]. 241