equality before the law and 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’, a protection that guarantees equal access
to fundamental rights for stateless persons.64
The treaty bodies established to supervise these human rights treaties
have increasingly raised statelessness issues in their periodic review of
state parties’ obligations, including in Asia.65 Renewed attention to
statelessness as a human rights issue is also visible in the Universal
Periodic Review (UPR) of Asian states’ human rights performance.66
1.4.2 Regional Law
Regional human rights treaties have proliferated in recent decades and
indeed have been the source of many important developments in preventing statelessness and protecting stateless persons. In addition to generic
regional human rights treaties, some nationality/statelessness specific
treaties have been promulgated under the auspices of regional organizations.67 Yet while such developments have occurred in Europe, Africa and
the Americas, Asia lacks a binding regional human rights instrument.
A lack of binding instrument does not mean a complete absence of
human rights standards in Asia. Rather, inspired by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights
Declaration provides in Article 18 that ‘every person has the right to a
nationality as prescribed by law’. Indeed, the ASEAN Intergovernmental
Michelle Foster, ‘D.Z. v. Netherlands, UN Doc. CCPR/C/130/D/2918/2016’ (2022) 116(4)
American Journal of International 850.
64
See also ICESCR and explicit general comments from UN Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, ‘General Comment No 20: Non-Discrimination in Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (Art. 2, Para. 2, of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights’ (2 July 2009) E/C.12/GC/20 paras 5, 26 and 30 <https://
digitallibrary.un.org/record/659980?ln=en> accessed 18 September 2023.
65
For more information about international human rights monitoring, including treaty
bodies and UPR recommendations see Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘Database
on Statelessness and Human Rights’ (2023) <https://database.institutesi.org/> accessed
20 September 2023.
66
Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘Mainstreaming Statelessness and the Right to
Nationality in the Universal Periodic Review: Third Cycle Evaluation and Lessons for the
Future’ (17 March 2023) <https://files.institutesi.org/Statelessness_in_the_UPR_
Evaluation_Report.pdf> accessed 20 September 2023.
67
For example, the European Convention on Nationality (ETS 166) and the Protocol to the
African Convention (n 31).
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009399555.003 Published online by Cambridge University Press