2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1 of this article, States Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.392 Finally, Article 5(e)(iv) the ICERD requires Canada to not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, or national or ethnic origin and ensure the right of everyone to the enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights, in particular their rights to public health, medical care, social security and social services.393 On this provision, the CERD’s General Recommendation No. 30 explains that States are obligated to guarantee equality between citizens and non-citizens in the enjoyment of these rights and that differential treatment based on citizenship or immigration status will constitute discrimination if the criteria for differentiation is not “applied pursuant to a legitimate aim, and are not proportional to the achievement of this aim.”394 Concerns over Canada’s treatment of stateless persons were noted in the CERD’s 2007 Concluding Observations to Canada’s Report on its implementation of the ICERD. In its concluding observations the Committee urged Canada to take necessary legal and policy measures to ensure that undocumented migrants and stateless persons whose asylum applications have been rejected are provided with access to social security, health care and education in all provinces and territories, in line with article 5(e) of the ICERD. In pursuit of this goal, the CERD recommended that Canada consider amending the IRPA to explicitly include statelessness as a factor of humanitarian and compassionate consideration.395 IV. Recommendations 19) In support of Recommendation #5, further research should be conducted on the practical and legal obstacles that stateless persons experience in accessing and becoming eligible for public healthcare and social assistance benefits in Canada. 20) UNHCR should engage with provincial governments on the precarious status of stateless persons in Canada and the practical and legal obstacles that stateless persons experience in exercising their international human right to healthcare and social assistance programs. 392 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 18 December 1979, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, p. 13, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3970.html (entered into force 3 September 1981, ratification by Canada 10 December 1981) [CEDAW] 393 ICERD, supra note 274 at Art. 5(e)(iv). 394 CERD General Recommendation 30, supra note 275 at paras. 3-4. 395 CERD Concluding Observations 2007, supra note 328 at para. 23. 83 83