A/HRC/23/23 women.5 There are also States that retain discriminatory nationality laws even if they have not entered any reservation to the Convention. 12. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides in its article 24.3 that “every child has the right to acquire a nationality”. Article 26 sets out the principle of equality before the law. 13. Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that children “shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have (…) the right to acquire a nationality” from birth. It also mandates States to ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and international obligations, “in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless”. According to its article 8, States are also obliged “to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality (…) as recognized by law without unlawful interference.” 14. Article 29 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families specifies that children of a “migrant worker shall have the right to a name, to registration of birth and to a nationality.” 15. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides in its article 18 that States should recognize the right of persons with disabilities, including children, “to a nationality, on an equal basis with others, including by ensuring that…[ they] are not deprived (…) of their ability to obtain, possess and utilize documentation of their nationality”. 16. Article 5 (d)iii of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination also addresses State obligations to eliminate racial discrimination in nationality-related matters. 17. Regional human rights treaties also recognize the right to a nationality: the InterAmerican Convention on the Nationality of Women, the American Convention on Human Rights, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the European Convention on Nationality and the Commonwealth of Independent States Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Other regional instruments also have provisions on equality with regard to nationality-related matters, even though they qualify this with deference to domestic laws, which effectively nullifies women’s equality in countries with discriminatory laws.6 18. This human rights framework is complemented by two conventions specifically dealing with the issue of statelessness. According to articles 1 and 4 of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, a contracting State “shall grant its nationality to a person born in its territory” or born to one of its nationals abroad in a non-State party “who would otherwise be stateless”.7 Its article 5 provides that “if the law of a contracting State entails loss of nationality as a consequence of any change in the personal status of a person such as marriage, termination of marriage (…,) such loss shall be conditional upon possession or acquisition of another nationality”. Article 32 of the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons provides that the States “shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation 5 6 7 As at 5 February 2013, 17 of 187 States maintained their reservation to article 9 of the Convention: see http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV8&chapter=4&lang=en#2. On the nationality of children, see the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, art. 6 (h), and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, art. 29.2. See the UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No.4 (HCR/GS/12/04) (available from www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/50d460c72.html), para. 2. 5