Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Iraq Given these discriminatory provisions and the generally widespread lack of identity documentation for the Dom, there have been increased advocacy efforts for law reform. This ultimately resulted in a decision from the Ministry of Interior in early 2019 instructing, “…all national identity directorates to issue unified identity documents to Roma…thereby facilitating their full and equal access to education, health care and other basic services provided by the Government.”82 UNHCR reported in May 2019 that it is “…monitoring the implementation of the instructions.”83 It is not yet clear how practical and effective these reforms have been, particularly when considering that “…Roma have to visit a government office and submit a request in order to obtain new identification documents”,84 which may continue the cycle of barriers to civil documentation for Dom. 4.4 Palestinian Refugees Iraq is outside the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and therefore the protection of Palestinian refugees in Iraq falls under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi Government and UNHCR. According to the 2006 Nationality Law, Palestinian refugees are excluded from naturalisation in Iraq and therefore even those who have been in the country for generations would not have the right to acquire Iraqi nationality. In terms of access to civil documentation, there is a distinction between Palestinian refugees who arrived in 1948 and those who arrived in 1967 or later (for further information, see the table at 5). According to Article 6(2) of the Nationality Law (Law No. 26 of 2006), “Iraqi nationality shall not be granted to Palestinians as a guarantee to their right to return to their homeland.”85 While this is a common clause in nationality laws throughout the MENA region, it nonetheless deprives Iraqi-born Palestinians of their fundamental rights and further marginalises them through a denial of public services afforded to citizens.86 The pre-2003 population of Palestinian refugees in Iraq was estimated to be 34,000.87 However, “…worsening conditions since 2003 have forced at least 25,000 Palestinians to flee Iraq, leaving only around 10,000 in the country”, according to the Palestinian Embassy in Baghdad in December 2018.88 More recently, as of 31 March 2019, there are 8,119 Palestinian refugees from Iraq registered with UNHCR in Iraq.89 82 UN Security Council, Implementation of resolution 2421 (2018), S/2019/365, 2 May 2019, available at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/s_2019_365_E.pdf 83 UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, at 79, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html 84 MRGI, Alternative Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) − Review of the Periodic Report of Iraq, 2018, http://bit.ly/2VKsoYo, para. 23 85 Institute for International Law and Human Rights, Iraq’s Minorities and Other Vulnerable Groups: Legal Framework, Documentation and Human Rights, May 2013, at 39, available at: http://lawandhumanrights.org/documents/MinorityHB_EN.pdf 86 Institute for International Law and Human Rights, Iraq’s Minorities and Other Vulnerable Groups: Legal Framework, Documentation and Human Rights, May 2013, at 39, available at: http://lawandhumanrights.org/documents/MinorityHB_EN.pdf 87 UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, at 109, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html 88 Reuters, Palestinians in Iraq fearful after loss of Saddam-era privileges, 20 December 2018, available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-palestinians-rights/palestinians-in-iraq-fearful-after-loss-of-saddam-era-privilegesidUSKCN1OJ2CM 89 UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, at 109, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html 15