1. MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS TO SOLVE STATELESSNESS nationality, in access to birth registration have been noted).12 However neither resolution has engaged with issues of statelessness and access to nationality in any more depth. As noted above, there has not to date been a Human Rights Council resolution or debate focusing solely on statelessness. However, in addition to the two resolutions on the right to a nationality (discussed in more detail below) a resolution on the arbitrary deprivation of nationality has been a regular part of the Human Rights Council’s work since 2008.13 From the outset the resolution urged States to “adopt and implement nationality legislation with a view to avoiding statelessness, consistent with fundamental principles of international law, in particular by preventing arbitrary deprivation of nationality and statelessness as a result of State succession”, and promote ratification of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954 Statelessness Convention) and the 1961 Statelessness Convention.14 The early resolutions focused primarily on discrimination as a factor rendering deprivation of nationality arbitrary, but in 2012 a reference was added to the need for procedural standards to avoid arbitrariness in decision making.15 In 2014 paragraphs dealing with the principle 12 13 14 15 HRC, Resolution 19/9, supra n10; HRC, Resolution 22/7: Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, adopted without a vote 21 March 2013, A/HRC/RES/22/7; HRC, Resolution 28/13: Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, adopted without a vote 26 March 2015, A/HRC/ RES/28/13. The inconsistency of attention to issues is demonstrated by the fact that the preambular paragraph referring to the increased risk of statelessness for those without birth registration appears in the first and third of these resolution, but not in the intervening one. HRC, Resolution 7/10: Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, adopted without a vote 27 March 2008, A/HRC/RES/7/10; HRC, Resolution 10/13: Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, adopted without a vote 26 March 2009, A/HRC/RES/10/13; HRC, Resolution 13/2: Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, adopted without a vote 24 March 2010, A/HRC/RES/13/2; HRC, Resolution 20/5, supra n10; HRC, Resolution 26/14: Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, adopted without a vote 26 June 2014, A/HRC/RES/26/14; and HRC, Resolution 32/5: Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, adopted without a vote 30 June 2016, A/HRC/RES/32/5. HRC, Resolution 7/10, supra n13, paras. 4-5; HRC, Resolution 10/13, supra n13, paras. 4-5; HRC, Resolution 13/2, supra n13, paras. 4-5. HRC, Resolution 20/5, supra n10, para. 10. Repeated in HRC, Resolution 26/14, supra n13, para. 12 and HRC, Resolution 32/5, supra n13, para. 13. 18