10 | PROTECTING STATELESS PERSONS FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION IN MALTA 2. LAW AND POLICY CONTEXT 2.1 INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL OBLIGATIONS PERTAINING TO STATELESSNESS AND DETENTION The right to a nationality is enshrined as an inalienable right in Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Malta is party to several Conventions protecting against discrimination in the context of nationality, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)16 that reiterates the right to a nationality and condemns discrimination against any nationality in case of naturalisation or citizenship; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR);17 and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).18 The latter two instruments both stipulate that every child has the right to acquire a nationality. However, Malta has failed to fulfil its obligations under the CRC and ICCPR, causing the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its 2013 Concluding Observations on Malta19 to urge “the State party to ensure that all children born in its territory are registered at birth, regardless of the status of their parents, with particular attention to children in single-parent families and/or irregular migration situations. Furthermore, the Committee urges the State party to ensure that a child born in the State party to parents who are foreigners, but unable to pass on their nationality, or to parents who themselves are stateless or whose nationality is unknown, is granted citizenship”. Malta is also party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)20 that prohibits discrimination against women in relation to acquiring, retaining and passing on their nationality; and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),21 which protects people with disabilities from being discriminated against in relation to acquiring a nationality. Malta also acceded to the 1930 Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of National Laws and its 1966 protocol, and submitted reservations on a