Introduction 1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI)1 welcomes the opportunity provided by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, to contribute to the upcoming thematic report to the Human Rights Council, on the advances and challenges to the right to education. This submission focuses on the denial of education to stateless children, whose disenfranchisement emanates from the denial of another fundamental right - the right to nationality. In examining the right to education for stateless children, this submission will focus on: • • • • Stateless children and the legal obligations of states to ensure their right to education The challenges faced by stateless children in attempting to realise their right education The implications of denying stateless children the right to education Key recommendations for consideration and inclusion in the Special Rapporteur’s annual thematic report on the right to education. Background to the submission 2. ISI works in global partnership with organizations, networks, and communities affected by statelessness on an array of themes and issues relating to the right to a nationality and the rights of stateless people. The denial of education for stateless children has consistently emerged as a key concern from partners working in communities affected by statelessness, prompting ISI to direct attention to this issue in the latter part of 2022. In June-July 2022, ISI conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 partners in eight countries2 around the world, to better understand the specific challenges stateless children face in accessing education; followed by a Roundtable discussion to share and further contextualise the findings together with participating partners, convened online in September 2022. 3. Based on those consultations, ISI notes with deep concern the increasingly significant obstacles stateless children face in realising their right to education, despite international guarantees, as set out in this submission. ISI has also identified, through this dialogue with partners, a number of ways in which stakeholders working to improve equitable access to education for children globally, through dedicated attention to the distinct challenges faced as a result of statelessness. Relevant recommendations for consideration by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education can be found in the final section of this submission. Stateless Children and the legal obligations of states to ensure the right to education 4. A stateless person is defined as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”.3 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 70,000 stateless children are born every year, which is the equivalent of a stateless child being born every 10 minutes4. The CRC guarantees the right to birth registration and nationality (article 7), yet discrimination, lack of safeguards to prevent statelessness, and 1 ISI is the first and the only human rights NGO dedicated to promoting the right to a nationality and the rights of stateless people globally. For more information, see www.institutesi.org. 2 ISI conducted Education Consultations with partners in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Montenegro, North Macedonia 3 Article 1, 1954 Convention relating to the status of stateless persons. 4 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), I Am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness, 3 November 2015 1