1. MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS TO SOLVE STATELESSNESS helpful in reinforcing such standards and clarifying their applicability to particular situations. For instance, the Special Rapporteurs on Minority Issues and on Foreign Debt have both taken the position that States should facilitate the naturalisation of long-term residents and in doing so have clarified what they consider reasonable requirements for naturalisation, in particular with regard to language skills.31 However, there is clearly room for the Special Procedures to do more in terms of exploring issues and promoting good practices. There is also potential for greater use to be made of individual communications to the Special Procedures. Any Special Procedure can receive information relating to the violation of the rights of an individual or group in any State32 and request that the State responsible take action to rectify these violations.33 To date these communications procedures have not been used extensively to address the right to a nationality; a number of communications have dealt with deprivations of nationality as a result of the exercise of other rights, but these have not focused on the deprivation of nationality itself.34 The only 31 32 33 34 HRC, Report of the Independent Expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák, 31 December 2012, A/HRC/22/49, para. 66; HRC, Report of the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Cephas Lumina, Addendum: Mission to Latvia (14 to 18 May 2012), 27 May 2013, A/HRC/23/37/Add.1, paras. 75 and 90(i). In this the Special Procedures differ from the treaty bodies as the latter can only deal with States which are Parties to the relevant treaty. When they receive such communications, the Special Procedures request information on the situation from the State(s) involved. If, on the basis of the available information, they consider that the rights in question have been violated, they will request that the State provide the individual or group with a remedy. Further information on these procedures is available from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) website, http://www. ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Communications.aspx. It should be noted that while the legal opinions of the Special Procedures carry some weight as the opinion of experts mandated to address these issues by the UN, they are not legally binding and there is no mechanism to enforce such opinions. The degree of rigour with which individual cases are considered and findings argued also varies between mandates. See, e.g., HRC, Communications report of Special Procedures, 24 February 2014, A/HRC/25/74, Communication BHR 5/2013, Joint Urgent Appeal to Bahrain by Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Special Rapporteur on the situation of 24