Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa Despite the dearth of accessions in the MENA region to the dedicated UN statelessness conventions, all MENA countries have international obligations relating to the avoidance of statelessness and the protection of the rights of all people within their jurisdiction – including stateless people. Indeed, all MENA states are parties to a multitude of international and regional human rights instruments that guarantee the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms for everyone within the state’s jurisdiction, regardless of nationality or statelessness. This is important not only for understanding the framework within which the domestic legal systems of these states are operating and what content should be reflected in their laws, but also because these international commitments introduce an added layer of accountability with regard to the manner in which MENA countries are dealing with statelessness. Attached to the United Nations human rights regime, in particular, are mechanisms for the monitoring and supervision of state policy. Thus, each of the core human rights instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has a “treaty body” which periodically reviews state practice against the standards set in these conventions. This reporting mechanism is a valuable source of information on the manner in which states are implementing – or not – their international 38