SOLVING STATELESSNESS traditional) international human rights mechanisms and the scope for using the new Sustainable Development Agenda to address inequalities and discrimination faced by stateless persons. 4.2.1, International human rights mechanisms As stated above, the core international human rights treaties, all of which are relevant to statelessness contain strong prohibitions against discrimination. State compliance with each of these treaties is monitored by treaty bodies, which also hear individual complaints.°° Through these mechanisms, activists and other actors can engage directly with the treaty bodies to raise issues faced by stateless people in the enjoyment of their rights. Engaging with these monitoring mechanisms provides an opportunity to put direct pressure on States, draw publicattention to the issue ofstatelessness andaddress individual violations. The principles of equality and non-discrimination provide a strong framework through which the relevance of statelessness can be articulated to these mechanisms. There are a variety of different mechanisms and, while they are not all identical, there are similarities in the ways in which they may be engaged. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Committee are a case in point. The CRC has been ratified by all States except the United States of America. Compliance with its obligations is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee’s monitoring mechanism is a strong forum through which to bring concerns relating to discriminatory causes of statelessness and indeed the inequalities faced by stateless children in relation to their enjoyment of other rights protected by the CRC.°’ 65 6° 6? Individual complaints can only be heard in relation to States which have explicitly recognised the competence of the relevant Committee to hear such complaints. M. Khanna and P. Brett, “Making effective use of UN human rights mechanisms to solve statelessness”, chapter 1 in this book. For a detailed analysis and overviewof the jurisprudence of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and how practitioners can engage with it see, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Addressing the right to a nationality through the Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Toolkit for Civil Society (CRC Toolkit), 2016, http://www:sstatelessnessandhumanrights.org. 123