Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 38th Session of the Universal Periodic Review LATVIA Introduction 1. The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness and the right to a nationality in Latvia. 2. This submission focuses on: I. Stateless population data and identification of statelessness II. Prevention and reduction of statelessness III. Statelessness determination and protection in the migratory context IV. Immigration detention of stateless persons 3. The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) 1 is a civil society alliance of NGOs, lawyers, academics, and other independent experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe. Based in London, it currently has over 150 members in 41 European countries. ENS organises its work around three pillars – law and policy development, awareness-raising, and capacity-building. ENS provides expert advice and support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. This submission draws on information and analysis from ENS’s Statelessness Index, which covers Latvia.2 4. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) is the first and only human rights NGO dedicated to working on statelessness at the global level. ISI’s mission is to promote inclusive societies by realising and protecting everyone’s right to a nationality. The Institute has made over 70 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, of which over 20 have been submitted in collaboration with the European Network on Statelessness. ISI has also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 36th UPR Sessions.3 1 For more information, see: www.statelessness.eu For more information, see: https://index.statelessness.eu/country/latvia 3 For more information see: www.institutesi.org 2 1