8. North Macedonia has received two recommendations from the UN Human Rights Committee in relation to children’s rights, birth registration and legal identity.14 It was recommended that North Macedonia “accelerate its efforts to identify children whose birth has not been registered and children without identity documents and to ensure the retroactive registration of births and the issuance of documents for those children. It should also ensure that children without identity documents are not refused access to health, education and other public services. The State party should strengthen its efforts to ensure birth registration and the provision of birth certificates for all children, particularly in rural areas, through interventions such as awareness-raising programmes and by simplifying registration procedures”. It was also recommended that North Macedonia “should take measures to eliminate all forms of institutional and de facto discrimination against children, particularly children who are members of minority communities […]”.15 9. In 2020, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) made several recommendations to North Macedonia to combat discrimination against Roma women and girls, on issues that are detailed in this submission. Some of these included recommendations for North Macedonia to “collect, analyse and make available statistics, disaggregated by sex, on stateless persons within its territory”, “ensure that women and girls have equal access to identity documentation, including proof of nationality, and adopt measures to expedite legal procedures and reduce administrative fees relating to the issuance of identity documentation”; and “redouble its efforts to ensure access to birth registration across the State party and ensure that public authorities uphold the rights of Roma women to acquisition, change and retention of nationality in all proceedings covered by legislation on citizenship”.16 10. The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has also made specific recommendations to North Macedonia to promote children’s right to a nationality and birth registration. In 2022, it recommended that North Macedonia “ensure that registration of birth and the issuing of birth certificates are free of charge” and “that citizenship is granted to children residing in the State party who would otherwise be stateless”. 17 Similarly, in 2010, it recommended that North Macedonia “undertake a survey to identify children lacking birth registration and/or identity documents and take immediate administrative and judicial measures to ensure retroactive birth registration and issuance of documents for these children”, and also “continue fulfilling its international obligations and raising protection standards with regard to stateless children, in particular by establishing a specific statelessness determination procedure”.18 11. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) also recommended North Macedonia in 2016 to “take all measures necessary to issue identity cards to all Roma and to address the situation of stateless persons in line with the requirements of the 14 UN Human Rights Committee, ‘Concluding observations on the third periodic report of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (17 August 2015) UN Doc CCPR/C/MKD/CO/3. 15 ibid, para. 20-21. 16 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (14 November 2018) UN Doc CEDAW/C/MKD/CO/6, paragraph 32. 17 Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Concluding observations on the combined third to sixth periodic reports of North Macedonia’ (20 October 2022) UN Doc. CRC/C/MKD/CO/3-6, paragraph 21. 18 Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 44 of the Convention – Concluding observations: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (23 June 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/MKD/CO/2, paragraph 33. 2