to public services, and naturalisation rates remained low.50 As such, the Committee recommended that Latvia: “a) Step up measures to decrease the number of persons without nationality by continuing to facilitate access to naturalisation; (b) Find ways and means to phase out the separate legal category of noncitizen; (c) Consider allowing non-citizens who are long-time permanent residents to participate in local elections; (d) Prevent discrimination of these individuals in access to public services; (e) Continue to remove any remaining barriers to naturalisation and facilitate naturalisation for individuals wishing to partake in it”.51 26. Having made these recommendations to Latvia in 2018, the Committee, reflecting on Latvia’s response to these recommendations in a 2020 letter to the Permanent Representative of Latvia to the UN, expressed concern that: “the number of those non-citizens who annually receive citizenship of Latvia or another country has remained stable. It is also concerned that the reported yearly decrease in the number of non-citizens is to a certain extent attributed to non-citizens passing away. The Committee considers the response to this recommendation partially satisfactory and encourages the State party to strengthen its efforts to facilitate access to naturalisation in order to further decrease the number of persons without nationality”.52 27. In addition to pursuing naturalisation for adult non-citizens, as signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Latvia must implement Article 7 to provide for the right of every child to be registered immediately after birth and acquire a nationality, and Article 8 to respect the right of the child to preserve their identity, including nationality. UNHCR has stated that the right to a nationality is a right that is “essential for the protection of every child”.53 In addition, obligations deriving from the 1961 Convention require Latvia to grant nationality to children who would otherwise be stateless and must be interpreted in light of the CRC.54 This includes the underlying principles of non-discrimination (Article 2 of the CRC), and that all actions concerning children, including in the area of nationality, must be undertaken with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration (Article 3). 28. Addressing the acquisition of citizenship of the children on non-citizens, the CERD Committee recommended in 2018 that Latvia: “Intensify efforts to ensure that all children have access to a nationality at birth, including by successfully amending the Citizenship Law to automatically 50 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ‘Concluding Observations on the Combined Sixth to Twelfth Periodic Reports of Latvia, CERC/C/LVA/CO/6-12, 25 September 2018, para. 20. 51 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ‘Concluding Observations on the Combined Sixth to Twelfth Periodic Reports of Latvia, CERC/C/LVA/CO/6-12, 25 September 2018, para. 21. 52 Letter from the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to His Excellency the Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations Office Geneva, CERD/101st session/FU/MJA/ks, 24 September 2020, available at: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/LVA/INT_CERD_FUL_LVA_43389_E.pdf 53 UNHCR (2018) Ensuring the right of all children to acquire a nationality: Connecting the Dots between the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness: https://www.refworld.org/docid/52206aa54.html 54 UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child’s Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness: https://www.refworld.org/docid/50d460c72.html 7