this issue before the UN Human Rights Committee.16 To date, no legislative amendment to address this issue has been tabled for debate in Parliament. Discrimination against stateless persons 9. The Netherlands lacks a statelessness determination and protection procedure. As a result, statelessness is often not identified and there is a failure to treat stateless persons in accordance with their specific needs and circumstances. This leads to discrimination in procedures relating to immigration and international protection status; protection from arbitrary detention; family reunification; naturalization; access to identity documents; and enjoyment of other basic rights.17 10. A related problem is the lack of adequate data on stateless persons on the territory of the Netherlands. According to UNHCR global statistics, the Netherlands hosts 1,951 persons under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate; the national government gives the figure of 4,000 stateless people and a further 80,000 persons of “unknown nationality”;18 yet the Central Statistics Bureau puts the figure at 12.869 persons in the Netherlands are registered as stateless (and 42,752 persons are of “unknown nationality”).19 The poor quality and conflicting reporting of data makes it difficult to monitor treatment and track the extent to which stateless persons experience discrimination. 11. During its Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, in 2017, the Netherlands received and accepted a recommendation by Haiti to “Expedite efforts to introduce a statelessness determination procedure and provide persons recognized as stateless with legal status and access to basic human rights, in full consultation with key stakeholders”.20 A public consultation on a law providing for a statelessness determination procedure (SDP) was held in 2016, but the draft was heavily criticized.21 As of September 2019, no draft Bill has been presented to Parliament.22 Recommendations 12. Based on the foregoing, we urge the SR Racism to raise the following issues during her visit to the Netherlands: I. 16 Expediting a comprehensive review of legislative powers allowing dual nationals to be targeted for deprivation of nationality as a counter-terrorism measure on the basis of its discriminatory effect and contribution to xenophobic rhetoric against Dutch citizens of minority or migrant background; Denny Zhao v. The Netherlands, UN Human Rights Committee, Communication No. 2001/2010 (case filed in 2016, decision pending). UNHCR, Mapping Statelessness in the Netherlands, November 2011; Advisory Committee on Migration Affairs, No country of one’s own, 2013; ISI, ENS and ASKV, From Syria to Europe: Experiences of Stateless Kurds and Palestinian Refugees from Syria Seeking Protection in Europe, 2019. 18 https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/nederlandse-nationaliteit/staatloosheid. 19 https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/gemeenten-willen-niet-langer-wachten-op-wetgeving-en-gaan-mensen-zonder-paspoort-zelfhelpen~b45cb795b/. 20 Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Netherlands (A/HRC/36/15), July 2017; see also CCPR/C/NLD/CO/5, para. 23. 21 See responses by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, international and national NGOs, UNHCR and lawyers groups here: https://www.internetconsultatie.nl/staatloosheid/reacties. 22 https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/binaries/rijksoverheid/documenten/kamerstukken/2019/07/19/antwoorden-kamervragen-over-hetwetsvoorstel-staatloosheid/antwoorden-kamervragen-over-het-wetsvoorstel-staatloosheid.pdf. 17