Joint Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the 104th Session Netherlands Introduction 1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI)1, ASKV Refugee Support (ASKV)2, and the European Network on Statelessness (ENS)3 welcome the opportunity to make this submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (hereafter the “Committee”), on the prohibition and elimination of discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to a nationality as enshrined in Article 5.d.iii read in conjunction with Article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (hereafter “Convention” or “ICERD”). The submission also focuses on the unlawful discrimination in the enjoyment of other rights guaranteed under Article 5 of the Convention, against members of minority communities who have been deprived of their right to a nationality and who are stateless, or indefinitely categorised as having ‘unknown nationality’ in the Netherlands. 2. In the Netherlands, members of ethnic and racial minorities are disproportionately impacted by statelessness, categorised as having ‘unknown nationality’ and subjected to citizenship deprivation. Those denied their right to a nationality are then more likely to be denied equal access to other rights. There is a strong nexus between discrimination on the basis of race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin on the one hand, and statelessness or nationality deprivation on the other, with discriminatory laws and policies exacerbating the impact of statelessness and nationality issues on members of minority communities. According to UNHCR’s latest statistics, there are 2006 stateless people in the Netherlands.4 However, according to the national Central Statistics Bureau, a total of 45,947 people are registered as ‘stateless/nationality unknown’.5 It remains unclear how many people are officially registered as stateless or ‘nationality unknown’. The latter includes stateless people but also other people whose nationality cannot be determined. According to official 2019 data from the Netherlands, there were 12,869 known stateless people in the country, with a further 42,752 people categorised as 1 The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) is the first and only human rights NGO dedicated to working on statelessness at the global level. ISI’s mission is to promote inclusive societies by realising and protecting everyone’s right to a nationality. The Institute had made over 80 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons. ISI has also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 38th UPR Sessions. For more information see: www.institutesi.org. 2ASKV is an Amsterdam-based NGO providing legal and social assistance to undocumented refugees in the Netherlands. Within the organisation there is a dedicated focus on direct assistance to stateless persons and we work on structural improvements in their situation including through strategic litigation, research and awareness campaigns. ASKV is a vocal advocate for refugee and stateless rights, both locally and nationally and engages in direct policy advocacy for durable improvements in Dutch policy. For more information see: www.askv.nl/staatloosheid. 3 The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a civil society alliance of NGOs, lawyers, academics, and other independent experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe. Based in London, it currently has over 170 members in 41 European countries. ENS organises its work around three pillars – law and policy development, awareness-raising, and capacity-building. ENS provides expert advice and support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. For more information about the European Network on Statelessness, see: www.statelessness.eu 4 See the Annex Table on Statelessness Statistics in UNHCR’s 2020 Global Trends Report, available for download here: https://www.unhcr.org/2020global-trends-annex-table-statelessness. 5 Het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, Statline, Bevolking; geslacht, leeftijd en nationaliteit op 1 januari, last updated 9 October 2020, https://opendata.cbs.nl/#/CBS/nl/dataset/03743/table. 1