This document highlights the statelessness related challenges in States that will be reviewed during the 51st Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR): Micronesia (Federated States of), Lebanon, Mauritania, Nauru, Rwanda, Nepal, Saint Lucia, Oman, Austria, Australia, Georgia, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Sao Tome and Principe. The issues raised in this summary include gender and racial discrimination in nationality laws, arbitrary deprivation of nationality and the child’s right to a nationality. All recommending states are urged to draw on this document when formulating recommendations to States under review. Micronesia (Federated States of) Micronesia is not a party to either the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. No official data is available on stateless people in the country. Micronesia’s citizenship laws lack comprehensive safeguards to ensure that children born in certain vulnerable circumstances automatically acquire nationality. The impact of rising sea levels and weather-related disasters presents a real problem due to relocation and the consequent risk of statelessness.1 Proposed recommendations: 1. Reform nationality legislation to include safeguards so that any child born in Micronesia who would otherwise be stateless is guaranteed citizenship; 2. Ensure that national laws include references to climate change and the risk of statelessness for people living in the country; 3. Accede the 1954 and 1961 Conventions and take all steps necessary to implement them. Lebanon Lebanon is not a party to either the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. According to UNHCR, there were 40,000 stateless people in the country in 2025.2 However, numbers are much higher. Lebanon’s nationality law does not allow Lebanese women to confer nationality to their children or spouses on an equal basis with men. 3 Lebanon hosts more than 480,000 Palestinians refugees and 1.5 million refugees from Syria.4 Some ethnic communities in the country such as Dom, Bedouins, Kurds, Syriacs and Assyrians continue to struggle to obtain Lebanese nationality and documentation due to discrimination in nationality laws. Proposed recommendations: 1. Amend Lebanon’s law to eradicate gender discrimination by allowing women to confer their nationality onto their children and spouses; 2. Ensure minorities have equal access to citizenship and do not face discrimination in enjoying their right to a nationality; 3. Guarantee pathways to naturalisation for Palestinian and Syrian refugees and ensure that all children born in Lebanon are registered immediately after birth; 4. Accede the 1954 and 1961 Conventions and take all steps necessary to implements them. Mauritania Mauritania is not a party to either the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. No official data is available on stateless people in the country. Mauritania’s nationality law does not allow Lebanese women to confer nationality to spouses on an equal basis with men. Also, they can only confer nationality to their children born outside of the country if the father is unknown or stateless.5 Certain ethnic minorities continue to face systematic barriers to citizenship and documentation such as the Haratine community. Proposed recommendations: 1 UNDP, ‘Pacific islands youth on the frontlines of climate change need the world’s attention, says UNDP’, May 2024, available at: https://www.undp.org/asia-pacific/press-releases/pacific-islands-youth-frontlines-climate-change-need-worlds-attention-saysundp?utm_source=chatgpt.com. 2 UNHCR, ‘Global trends’, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/insights/annexes/trends-annexes.html?situation=4. 3 Global Campaign for Equal nationality Rights, ‘Middle East and North Africa’, available at: https://www.equalnationalityrights.org/middle-east-northafrica/. 4 UNHCR, ‘Global trends’, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2024. 5 Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’, available at: https://www.equalnationalityrights.org/sub-saharan-africa/. 2