state parties to ‘grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.’ For the CRC, Article 7 affirms the right of every child to acquire a nationality and thus requires states to implement measures to ensure that no child is left stateless.15 Article 7(1) requires the child to be ‘registered immediately after birth’ and to have the right from birth to a name and to acquire a nationality. Furthermore, Article 8(1) obligates state parties to ‘undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.’ In addition, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), also ratified by Cambodia, contains important safeguards. Article 24(2) provides that, ‘every child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have a name’, and Article 24(3) stipulates that ‘every child has the right to acquire a nationality’. The Human Rights Committee has articulated that Article 24 can be understood as an important contribution to protection against statelessness. This provision enshrines the universal right to a nationality as inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and equally articulated in the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration under Article 18. Moreover, Article 26 of the ICCPR guarantees equality before the law ‘without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law’, and explicitly prohibits discrimination ‘on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status’. The non-discrimination principle is further articulated specifically in relation to nationality in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which provides under Article 5 that ‘states parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights… (d)(iii) the right to nationality’. The CERD Committee’s general recommendation 30 on discrimination against non-citizens recommended states to adopt measures to reduce statelessness, in particular statelessness among 16 children. Based on these human rights treaty obligations, and for the past 10 to 15 years or so, the Human Rights Committee, as well as the CEDAW, CRC and CERD Committees have gradually taken up the issue of statelessness in Cambodia by expressing concern in relation to specific issues and expanding their statelessnessrelated recommendations to Cambodia. 15 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (2018), ‘Statelessness & Human Rights: The Convention on the Rights of the Child’. <https://files.institutesi.org/statelessness-and-CRC.pdf> (8 July 2024). 16 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2004) ‘General Recommendation 30 on Discrimination against Non-Citizens’, UN Doc CERD/C/64/Misc.11/rev.3, para. 16. 6