Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion & la Coalition de la société civile de lutte contre l’apatridie Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 33rd Session of the Universal Periodic Review Côte d’Ivoire Introduction and focus of submission 1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI)1 and la Coalition de la société civile de lutte contre l’apatridie (CICA)2 make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in relation to statelessness, access to nationality and human rights in Côte d’Ivoire. 2. The Ministry of Justice of Cote d’Ivoire has disclosed that as many as 700,000 persons living in the country may be stateless or at risk of statelessness. This submission focuses on the main challenges in relation to preventing, reducing and resolving issues of statelessness in the country and barriers in ensuring the right to a nationality for everyone: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. Lack of safeguards against statelessness Statelessness among historical migrants (‘from foreign origin’) Foundlings Discrimination in nationality law on the basis of gender and disability Civil registration and access to identity documentation Deprivation of nationality resulting into statelessness Impact of statelessness on people and society 1 ISI is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights-based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. It is the first and only global center committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Between the 27th and 32nd sessions of the UPR, ISI has made over 35 country-specific submissions on the human rights of stateless persons and has also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review between the 23rd and 31st UPR sessions. For more information about ISI, please see: http://www.institutesi.org. 2 La Coalition de la Société Civile Ivoirienne Contre l’Apatridie, en abrégé (CICA) est une Plateforme d’actions des ONG de défense des Droits de l’homme sur le droit à la nationalité et l’éradication de l’apatridie en Côte d’Ivoire. Elle a été mise en place en mars 2016, grâce au soutien du Bureau d’Abidjan du Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux Réfugiés (UNHCR) et Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). C’est une plateforme qui comprend une vingtaine d’organisations. Elle vise à assurer une meilleure coordination des interventions et une mutualisation des efforts en matière de promotion du droit à la nationalité et de lutte contre l'apatridie dans le pays. Les organisations membres de la CICA partagent un idéal commun, celui d’une Côte d’Ivoire sans apatride, dans lequel tous les droits humains, en particulier le droit à la nationalité et à une identité légale, sont fortement promus. 1