The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 36th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Libya Introduction 1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) and Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the right to a nationality and human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness in Libya. 2. This submission focuses on gender discrimination in nationality laws, specifically the inability of Libyan women to confer nationality on their children and non-national spouses on an equal basis with Libyan men. The submission also looks at the risk of statelessness and related human rights challenges faced by minority communities in Libya. 3. The co-submitting organisations note their significant concern related to the current migrant and refugee crisis, with countless people being held in arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions, subject to torture, rape and extortion and other degrading treatment; and emphasise the likelihood of a serious risk of statelessness among those arbitrarily detained and deprived of their basic human rights. However, this submission does not address these grave human rights concerns, due to a lack of on the ground information and research on the likely statelessness impact of the crisis. 4. ISI1 is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting an integrated, human rights-based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. The Institute has made over 50 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 35th UPR Sessions. 5. The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights mobilizes international action for the removal of gender-discriminatory provisions from all nationality laws, through its coalition of national, regional and international organizations and activists, including steering committee members Equality Now, Equal Rights Trust, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, UNHCR, Women’s Learning Partnership and Women’s Refugee Commission. 1 For more information about the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, see: www.institutesi.org. 1