The Right to a Nationality and the Right to Adequate Housing Furthermore, fearing for their safety, 57 they are less likely to express their cultural identity, in violation of the principle of cultural adequacy. In countries where statelessness depends on individual access to identity documents, as opposed to complete bans based on ethnicity, such as the Roma of North Macedonia, the challenges are distinct but no less important. Here, individuals face discrimination primarily from private actors in renting housing or they are unable to afford formal housing, forcing them to live in informal or unauthorised settlements without adequate services. 58 This is in violation of the principles of security of tenure, availability of services and affordability. Although there is variation based on the nature of the violation of the right to a nationality, stateless persons face a host of challenges enjoying the right to adequate housing. While the 1954 Convention was written to provide protections for stateless persons and includes stipulations in regards to the right to adequate housing, its protections are fairly minimal. Article 21 states: As regards housing, the Contracting States, in so far as the matter is regulated by laws or regulations or is subject to the control of public authorities, shall accord to stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory treatment as favourable as possible and, in any event, not less favourable than that accorded to aliens generally in the same circumstances.59 Like art 21, art 13 provides that the treatment of stateless persons be as favourable as possible and no less favourable than that accorded to aliens with ‘regards the acquisition of movable and immovable property and other rights pertaining thereto, and to leases and other contracts relating to movable and immovable property’. 60 Given that the 1954 Convention distinguishes between the rights afforded to nationals and non-nationals and requires the presence of stateless persons to be considered lawful by the state to enjoy these rights, its protections are conditional and minimal, and thus should not be relied on exclusively by those defending the right of stateless persons to adequate housing. But while these safeguards are provisional, other international treaties providing for the right to adequate housing are not, as has been further clarified by their respective monitoring bodies. These provide a stronger foundation for the right to adequate housing for all individuals, including stateless persons. As the ICESCR provides some of the broadest protections with regards to the right to adequate housing, it is a natural starting place to understand international safeguards for stateless persons apart from the 1954 Convention. CESCR General Comment 20 specifies that the rights enumerated in the ICESCR, including the right to adequate housing, apply to all persons regardless of nationality. The Committee goes on to state that ���[t]he ground of nationality should not bar access to Covenant rights’ 61 and ‘Covenant rights apply to everyone including non-nationals, such as … stateless persons … regardless of legal status and documentation’. 62 While some may note that ICESCR art 4 57 58 59 60 61 62 ibid 11. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘This is Our Home’ Stateless Minorities and Their Search for Citizenship (Report 3 November 2017) 24. 1954 Convention (n 2) art 21. ibid art 13. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No 20: NonDiscrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Art 2, Para 2, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), UN ESCOR, 42nd sess, Agenda Item 3, UN Doc E/C.12/GC/20 (2 July 2009) 9 [30]. ibid. 247