Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954.”19 12. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a recommendation to North Macedonia to “take measures to identify children whose births were not registered and who lack identity documents and continue to proceed with retroactive birth registration and issuance of documents, including, if possible, by simplifying the entire process.”20 North Macedonia’s International obligations 13. North Macedonia has acceded to both the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954 Convention) and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961 Convention). 14. North Macedonia has international obligations to fulfil the right to a nationality and protect the rights of stateless persons based on other UN treaties to which it is a party. Under Article 118 of the Macedonian Constitution, all ratified international instruments are incorporated into the national legal framework. These include, among others:21 • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 24.3) • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Articles. 2.2 and article 3) • Convention of the Rights of the Child (Articles 2, 3, 7 and 8) • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Article 9) • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Article 5(d)(iii)) • Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 18) • Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) 15. North Macedonia is also a party to other relevant regional treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Convention on Nationality (ECN). However, North Macedonia is not party to the European Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession, nor the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and their Families. Furthermore, the right to a nationality is included in Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Snapshot of Statelessness in North Macedonia 16. Statelessness in North Macedonia occurs mostly among in situ populations, and while there is limited data available, it may also occur in the context of migration.22 Historic causes of statelessness stem from the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, compounded by various factors such as the lack of a dedicated procedure to identify and determine statelessness, insufficient safeguards to ensure that children born in North Macedonia 19 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), ‘Concluding observations on the combined second to fourth periodic reports of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (15 July 2016) UN Doc. E/C.12/MKD/CO/2-4, paragraph 24. 20 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), ‘Concluding observations on the combined eighth to tenth periodic reports of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (21 September 2015) UN Doc. CERD/C/MKD/CO/8-10, paragraph 21(c). 21 See United Nations Treaty Collection. 22 See further information at ENS, Statelessness Index: North Macedonia, https://index.statelessness.eu/country/northmacedonia. 3