1. MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS
TO SOLVE STATELESSNESS
is perhaps no coincidence that Algeria’s recommendations on this
subject are twice as likely to be accepted as Norway’s.60
One final note of interest on the UPR: part of the inconsistency in
practice to date may have to do with the fact that the background
documentation for the UN’s input to the UPR during the first and
second cycles did not include a dedicated statelessness heading. Any
UN information on statelessness in the SuR was typically squeezed in
under the heading on migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and Internally
displaced persons. This may change for the better as of the third cycle,
when various aspects of the documentation are due to change and a
specific heading on statelessness could be included. UPR Info’s recent
decision to make its database searchable by “statelessness and the right
to nationality” will also help support improved recommendations.
3. Treaty Bodies
The UN human rights treaty bodies are committees of international
experts which monitor the implementation of the international
human rights treaties. Each treaty body reviews, on a regular basis,
the implementation of the relevant convention by States Parties.61
The treaties themselves are legally binding international agreements,
but, as such, only apply to States Parties. This geographic limitation
distinguishes the work of the treaty bodies from that of the UPR
discussed above. A second difference is that whereas the UPR may
60
61
For Algeria’s recommendations see, HRC, Report of the Working Group on the
Universal Periodic Review: Bahrain, 6 July 2012, A/HRC/21/6, para. 115.143;
HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Vanuatu,
4 April 2014, A/HRC/26/9, para. 99.36; HRC, Report of the Working Group
on the Universal Periodic Review: Malawi, 20 July 2015, A/HRC/30/5, para.
110.57.
For Norway’s, HRC, UPR Report: Bahrain (supra), 115.141; HRC, Report of
the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Tunisia, 9 July 2012,
A/HRC/21/5, para.116.4; HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal
Periodic Review: Jordan, 6 January 2014, A/HRC/25/9, paras. 120.6 and
120.26; HRC, UPR Report: Malaysia, supra n55, para.146.31; HRC, Report of the
Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Saudi Arabia, 26 December
2013, A/HRC/25/3, para. 138.95; HRC, Report of the Working Group on the
Universal Periodic Review: Qatar, 27 June 2014, A/HRC/27/15, para.124.35;
HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Kuwait,
13 April 2015, A/HRC/29/17, para. 157.118.
Each body also has a procedure for receiving and considering individual cases,
but consideration of these procedures is outside the scope of this chapter.
34