SOLVING STATELESSNESS making it particularly relevant in addressing concerns regarding the discriminatory causes and consequences of statelessness. State compliance with CEDAW is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. NGOs can engage directly with the treaty bodies responsible for monitoring CRC and CEDAW by submitting alternative reports on States’ implementation of the relevant Convention. These reports can be used to draw attention to discriminatory causes of statelessness and the discriminatory treatment of stateless persons who fall within the remit of each Convention, and secure relevant recommendations by the treaty bodies to States under review. Litigators who have represented stateless persons at the national level may also consider bringing individual complaints of discriminatory treatment to the treaty bodies.” Other treaties including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ICCPR and ICESCR are also relevant in this regard. The final key international mechanism through which the inequalities of stateless persons can be raised is the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) - a Human Rights Council mechanism through which the human rights performance of every State is scrutinised by the international community in four and a half year cycles. The use of this mechanism, if coupled with sustained national level follow-up, can be a strong avenue for promoting and protecting the rights of stateless persons and raising awareness of their inequality. As there is no single treaty against which States are scrutinised by this mechanism (all human rights obligations are considered relevant), the UPR process affords more flexibility and comprehensiveness than the treaty bodies. However, this can also mean that the information that is presented to the Human Rights Council and which forms the primary basis for recommendations that follow lacks focus. NGOs have a role to play in ensuring that strong evidence and information, which draws on the universally accepted norms of equality and non-discrimination, is submitted to the process. The 23", 24" and 25 UPR Sessions (November 2015 - May 2016) in which over 40 States were reviewed saw over 110 recommendations 7” See, See, L. Bingham and L. Gamboa, “Litigating against statelessness”, chapter 5 in this book. 125

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