ADDRESSING STATELESSNESS THROUGH THE RULE OF LAW NOTES 1 UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). 2 UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954), Art. 1, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3840. html. 3 UN Secretary-General (2018), Guidance Note of the Secretary General: The United Nations and Statelessness, available at: https://www.refworld.org/ docid/5c580e507.html. 4 UNHCR (2022), Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2021, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/publications/brochures/62a9d1494/global-trendsreport-2021.htm. 5 UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3840.html. 6 UN General Assembly, Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961), available at: https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/1961Convention-on-the-reduction-of-Statelessness_ENG.pdf 7 See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 15; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Arts. 24; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Arts. 2(1) and 5(d)(iii); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Art. 9; Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Arts. 2, 7 and 8; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Arts. 5, 12, and 18; and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Art. 29. 8 UNHCR (2021), Background Note on Discrimination in Nationality Laws and Statelessness, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/616fda104. html. 9 UNHCR (2022), Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2022, available at: https://www.refworld.org/ docid/6221ec1a4.html; Liberia reformed its law in 2022, bringing the the total number down to 24. 10 Adjami, M. (2016), Statelessness and Nationality in Côte D’Ivoire, A Study for UNHCR, available at: https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/58594d114.pdf. 11 See for example, UNHCR & World Bank Group (2019), Understanding the Socioeconomic Conditions of the Stateless Shona Community in Kenya, 2019, available at: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/356511608745182603/pdf/Understanding-the-Socioeconomic-Conditions-of-the-StatelessShona-Community-in-Kenya-Results-from-the-2019-Socioeconomic-Survey.pdf; a key finding is that the poverty rate among the stateless Shona was 24% higher than in the urban Kenyan population. 12 UNHCR (2022), Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2021, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/publications/brochures/62a9d1494/global-trendsreport-2021.htm. 13 Ibid. 14 UNHCR & Siren Associates (2021), Mapping and understanding statelessness in the Akkar, available at: https://sirenassociates.com/wp-content/ uploads/2021/12/Mapping-and-understanding-statelessness-in-Akkar-2021.pdf. 15 UN Secretary-General (2004), Report of the Secretary-General: The rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies, available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/527647?ln=en. 16 UN, “The United Nations and the Rule of Law”, available at: https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/rule-of-law-and-human-rights/#:~:text=There%20is%20 no%20rule%20of,a%20principle%20into%20a%20reality. 17 While a rule of law framework is a critical mechanism to address statelessness, it is worth noting that the rule of law is under threat worldwide. The World Justice Project’s 2021 Rule of Law Index recorded an overall deterioration in rule of law performance across 139 jurisdictions, the fourth consecutive year of general decline. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to restrictive emergency measures and exacerbated democratic erosion in ways that undermine overall progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. It is inherently challenging to advance the rule of law in a global environment increasingly inimical to people-centred justice and democratic governance. See World Justice Project (2021), Rule of Law Index 2021, available at: https://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/documents/WJP-INDEX-21.pdf. 18 UNHCR (2017), “This is Our Home”: Stateless Minorities and their Search for Citizenship, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59e4a6534.html. 19 See UN General Assembly Res. 50/152 (1996), para. 16 available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/205545?ln=en; see also UN Human Rights Council (2016), Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, A/HRC/RES/32/5, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57e3dc204.html. 20 Despite progress made in recent years, there are still 24 countries with nationality laws which do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality to their children, and in more than 50 countries nationality laws do not afford women the same rights to acquire, change, or retain their nationality as men. See UNHCR (2022), Background Note on Gender Equlity, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2022, available at: https://www. refworld.org/docid/6221ec1a4.html. 21 William Bordat, S. & Kouzzi, S. (2010), “Legal empowerment of unwed mothers: Experiences of Moroccan NGOs,” in Golub, S. (ed.), Legal Empowerment: Practitioners’ Perspectives, Rome: IDLO available at: https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/138103/LEWP_BordatKouzzi.pdf. 22 Art. 9(2) states that, “States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.” See also UNHCR (2015), Good Practices Paper - Action 3: Removing Gender Discrimination from Nationality Laws, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/54f8377d4.html. 23 See Art. 24 of the ICCPR and Art. 7 of the CRC, the latter being almost universally ratified. 16