2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(2) a tool to address particular root causes of statelessness. 7 For example, art 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW’) addresses gender discrimination in nationality laws, and art 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘CRC’) provides for birth registration. Moreover, the ICERD, one of the first UN human rights conventions, owes its potential significance in the fight against statelessness to its mandate, which addresses one of the biggest root cause of statelessness — discrimination. 8 Another great advantage of the ICERD is the number of its ratifications. 9 As of 1 September 2020, the ICERD has 182 states parties, making it one of the most widely ratified human rights treaties. 10 In comparison, there are 94 states parties to the 1954 Convention and 75 to the 1961 Convention. 11 In total, over 95 per cent of the world’s population are covered by the ICERD, including countries with substantial stateless populations not party to the Statelessness Conventions such as the Dominican Republic, Kenya, India and Thailand. 12 This gives ICERD the potential of being a strong weapon for ensuring an effective nationality to all. The Committee reviews 21–24 countries per year to give country-specific recommendations on the implementation of the ICERD in its so-called ‘Concluding Observations’. As a result, 262 of such reviews, from the 65th to the 100th session, have taken place between the publication of General Recommendation No 30 on Discrimination against Non-Citizens (‘GR 30’) in 2004 and the submission of this paper. 13 It would be worth noting at this point that there is a serious gap in reporting, with some countries having submitted zero reports to the Committee in this period, whereas others have written multiple. The voluntary nature of this reporting remains a challenge for indeed all treaty bodies. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Articles providing for (an equal enjoyment of) the right to a nationality include, but are not limited to: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976) (‘ICCPR’) art 24; Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 20 November 1989, entry into force 2 September 1990) UNGA res 44/25 (‘CRC’) art 7; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, opened for signature 18 December 1979, 1249 UNTS 13 (entered into force 3 September 1981) (‘CEDAW’); Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, GA Res 61/106, UN GAOR, 61st sess, Agenda Item 67(b), UN Doc A/RES/61/106 (24 January 2007, adopted 13 December 2006) (‘CRPD’) art 18; International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, opened for signature 18 December 1990, 2220 UNTS 3 (entered into force 1 July 2003) art 29. Amal de Chickera and Joanna Whiteman, ‘Addressing Statelessness through the Rights to Equality and Non-Discrimination’ in Laura van Waas and Melanie J Khanna (eds), Solving Statelessness (Wolf Legal 2016) 101. Melanie J Khanna and Peggy Brett, ‘Making Effective Use of UN Human Rights Mechanisms to Solve Statelessness’ in Laura van Waas and Melanie J Khanna (eds), Solving Statelessness (Wolf Legal 2016) 35. For the status of ratification of the ICERD (n 3), as well as all other multilateral treaties deposited with the United Nations Secretary-General, see United Nations Treaty Collection (Web Page) <https://treaties.un.org/>. 1954 Convention (n 5); 1961 Convention (n 6). David Keane and Annapurna Waughray, ‘Introduction’ in David Keane and Annapurna Waughray (eds), Fifty Years of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination — A Living Instrument (Manchester University Press 2014) 7. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation 30 on Discrimination against Non-Citizens, UN Doc CERD/C/64/Misc.11/Rev.3 (12 March 2004) [13]–[17] (‘GR 30’). All ‘Concluding Observations’ are made public via the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Website. See ‘Human Rights Bodies’ UN Treaty Body Database (Web Page) <https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/TBSearch.aspx>. The 101st session, scheduled for April-May 2020, was postponed due to COVID-19. 224