RAMADAN v. MALTA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION
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force in 2008)8, and at a regional level, Article XIX of the 1948 American
Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, Article 20 of the American
Convention on Human Rights (adopted in 1969 and entered into force in
1978)9, Article 6 (3) and (4) of the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child (adopted in 1990 and entered into force in 1999) 10,
Article 24 of the Commonwealth of Independent States Convention on
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (adopted in 1995 and entered
into force in 1998)11, Article 6 (g) and (h) of the Protocol to the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa
(adopted in 2003 and entered into force in 2005) 12, Article 7 of the
Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam (adopted in 2005)13, Article 29
of the revised Arab Charter on Human Rights (adopted in 2005 and entered
into force in 2008)14, and Article 18 of the 2012 Association of Southeast
Asian Nations Human Rights Declaration.
Other general provisions pertaining to the right to equal protection of the
law, the right to the recognition of one’s own legal status, the right to
freedom of movement and residence within the borders of the State and the
8. The Convention has 164 parties, including Malta.
9. The Convention has 22 parties. In its Advisory Opinion on Proposed Amendments to
the Naturalization Provision of the Constitution of Costa Rica, OC-4/84, the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, held, on 19 January 1984, that there were two
aspects to this right which were reflected in Article 20 of the American Convention on
Human Rights: “first, the right to a nationality established therein provides the individual
with a minimal measure of legal protection in international relations through the link his
nationality establishes between him and the state in question; and, second, the protection
therein accorded the individual against the arbitrary deprivation of his nationality, without
which he would be deprived for all practical purposes of all his political rights as well as
those civil rights that are tied to the nationality of the individual”. See also the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights judgments on Castillo Petruzzi et al. Case,
30 May 1999, § 101 and IvcherBronstein Case (Baruch Ivcher Bronstein vs. Peru),
6 February 2001, § 88, and particularly, Yean and Bosico Girls v. the Dominican Republic,
8 September 2005, §§ 140-142, 154-158, Expelled Dominicans and Haitians
v. Dominican Republic, 28 August 2014, §§ 253-264, and Organisation of American States
Resolution of the General Assembly, AG/RES. 2826 (XLIV -O/14), Prevention and
reduction of statelessness and protection of stateless persons in the Americas, of 4 June
2014.
10. The Convention has 47 parties. See General Comment on Article 6 of the African
Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, ACERWC/GC/02 (2014),
adopted by the Committee at its twenty-third Ordinary Session (7-16 April 2014), and
IHRDA and OSJI (on behalf of children of Nubian descent in Kenya) v. Kenya,
Communication No. 002/2009, 22 March 2011. As recalled by the African Committee of
Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in its general comment on Article 6 of the
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, “being stateless as a child is
generally an antithesis to the best interests of children”.
11. The Convention has 4 parties.
12. The Convention has 36 parties.
13. There is no official information regarding the ratification status of the Covenant.
14. The Convention has 13 parties.