Statelessness Working Paper Series 2016/08 international human rights law and other international standards—such as those laid out in the 1961 Convention. Such legislation should ensure, for example, that all children acquire citizenship at birth and receive relevant birth registration documents regardless of their ethnicity or race, or father’s nationality or stateless status. As an initial step, Article 4 of Iraq’s 2006 Nationality Law, among others, should be amended to eliminate any discriminatory impact. The rule of law also promotes accountable institutions that respond to the needs of all individuals, including the stateless. Institutions that are held accountable for their delivery are composed of a network of decision-makers that have the capacity to manage the legal requirements related to legal documentation or nationality, and the independence and character to do so equitably and with integrity. Thus, in the situation of Iraq, institutional actors should be disciplined for denying children their right to a nationality through their mothers. Administrative appeals procedures should be made available. Though there is no agreed definition, access to justice has been defined by some UN entities as the ability to seek and obtain a remedy for grievances in accordance with human rights principles and standards.37 The rule of law requires wide-levels of access to justice so that stateless populations and other vulnerable groups can demand recourse for violations of their human rights or their rights to legal identity, and otherwise hold relevant institutions accountable for delivering on their economic, social, and political rights. In pursuit of their substantive rights, stateless people should be made aware of their rights, including procedures for applying for nationality. The processes themselves, should be straightforward and not cumbersome. Furthermore, individuals must also be given the right and the ability to appeal negative status determinations for nationality. The Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2014-2024, highlights the role that strategic litigation can play in reforming laws and institutional practices.38 As a principle means of identifying cases with potential impact on law and policy, i.e. strategic litigation, legal aid provision should be more widely resourced. Access to justice programming interventions that address violence against women can and should also focus on addressing inequality in nationality provision in relevant contexts. 8. Conclusion Solutions to statelessness require that we do more than amend laws or pass new legislation providing for equal access to nationality; solutions require the adoption of measures that strengthen respect for the rule of law more broadly. The rule of law framework discussed here—calling for the promotion of sound laws, accountable institutions and access to justice—can help us conceptualize strategic approaches to solving statelessness, including the urgent need to overcome discrimination against women in nationality provision. Despite the potential impact that rule of law and access to justice can play in ending the discriminatory application of nationality laws, much programming in this area has historically been piecemeal and uncoordinated.39 The rule of law framework outlined here might provide a helpful template to better rationalize interventions to rule of law challenges, including discrimination in nationality provision and justice for survivors of SGBV. In Iraq, this would mean coordinated advocacy campaigns at the national and international levels to reform discriminatory nationality laws. These efforts would be coupled with capacity building efforts 37 UN Development Programme, Access to Justice Practice Note, 2004. “Support initiatives by the legal community to ensure the grant of nationality to children who would otherwise be stateless, including through strategic litigation. Build the capacity of legal professionals and the justice sector on statelessness and nationality issues.” UNHCR, Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2014-2024, p. 10. 39 See Camino Kavanagh and Bruce Jones, Shaky Foundations: An Assessment of the UN’s Rule of Law Support Agenda. New York University, 2011, pp. 42, 63. 38 9