birth and to ensure that no child is left stateless. Similarly, Article 5(d)(iii) of the CERD prohibits racial and ethnic discrimination in relation to the right to nationality. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Human Rights Committee both made recommendations to Slovenia on nationality rights, in 2015 and 2016 respectively. 9 Consequently, these treaty bodies are relevant mechanisms in ensuring that Slovenia upholds its obligations to protect the right to a nationality and protect the rights of stateless persons under international law. 11. Lastly, since 1993, Slovenia has been party to the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). However, Slovenia is not party to the 1997 European Convention on Nationality (ECN) or the 2006 Convention of the Council of Europe on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession. 12. The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia provides in its Article 8 for the direct application of duly ratified and published treaties.10 Consequently, the aforementioned international treaties that Slovenia has acceded to, are considered part of Slovenia’s legislation. Hence, a number of important international legal provisions which protect the right to a nationality, safeguard against statelessness and protect the basic human rights of stateless persons are subject to direct application in the country. Definition of a Stateless Person in Slovenian National Law 13. According to Article 2 of the Slovenian ‘Aliens Act’, a stateless person is a foreigner who ‘is not deemed to be a national of any country in accordance with the legal acts of individual countries’.11 This definition falls short of the international law definition of a stateless person as someone who is “not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”.12 The failure to include the phrase “under the operation of its law” in the Slovenian law is a significant gap in the definition. It means that those who under the letter of the law should have a nationality but have been denied their nationality due to non-implementation (or discriminatory implementation) of the law, may not be considered to be stateless in the country. In the absence of a procedure to identify and protect stateless persons, the impact of this gap may be less obvious in practice, but it is a significant one nonetheless, as it can result in stateless people not being identified and consequently being denied protection. 13 The gap in the definition identified above, together with the lack of a statelessness determination procedure, prevents stateless persons from being recognised as such in Slovenia, and from the protection and rights this entails, such as the right to a travel document and legal residence. 9 Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations (2016) CCPR/C/SVN/CO/3; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding observations (2015) CEDAW/C/SVN/CO/5-6. 10 Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, Article 8: https://www.us-rs.si/en/about-the-court/legal-basis/. 11 Article 2, Aliens Act: http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO5761. 12 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 360 U.N.T.S. 117, 1954, Article 1(1). 13 ENS, Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: An Agenda for Change, 2017, p. 11, available here: http://www.statelessness.eu/resources/protecting-stateless-persons-arbitrary-detention- agenda-change; UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Geneva, 2014. Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/dach/wp-content/uploads/ sites/27/2017/04/CHUNHCR_Handbook-on-Protection-of-Stateless-Persons.pdf. 3