3. During a visit to the Netherlands in July 2020, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance reported the following: ‘The Special Rapporteur is also concerned that current and proposed laws limit the likelihood that children born in the Netherlands will acquire citizenship and benefit from lawful residence status. About 80,000 persons of unknown nationality currently reside in the Netherlands. Many of these individuals lack the documents necessary to prove or disprove their statelessness. The Special Rapporteur has learned that only 4,000 persons of unknown nationality have received formal statelessness status and are listed in the Netherlands’ Personal Records Database’.62 4. The Human Rights Committee recommended in July 2019 that the Netherlands should review and amend the draft legislation to ensure that a person recognised as stateless is granted a residence permit to fully enjoy the rights enshrined in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that the stateless determination procedure is entirely in line with international standards, is aimed at reducing statelessness and considers in cases involving children the best interests of the child.63 5. In October 2014, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe reported the following after he visited the Netherlands in May 2014: ‘The situation of children born in the Netherlands who are stateless is of particular concern to the Commissioner. In the light of Article 7 of the UN CRC, which provides that all children have a right to a nationality, and Article 1 of the UN 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which requires states parties to grant nationality to a person born on their territory who would otherwise be stateless, the Commissioner strongly recommends that the Dutch authorities find solutions for stateless children born in the Netherlands, notably by rescinding the requirement of lawful stay for their acquisition of Dutch nationality. The Commissioner also recalls that in its Recommendation on the Nationality of Children, the Committee of Ministers stressed that member states should register children as being of unknown nationality only for as short a period of time as possible’.64 6. At the regional level, the Netherlands is party to the European Convention on Nationality (ECN) and the 2006 Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession, which obliges States Parties to take specific measures to protect persons who are stateless or at risk of statelessness. Further, the Netherlands has the obligation to protect the liberty and security of all persons, including stateless persons, and to protect against arbitrary and unlawful detention as stipulated in the ICCPR (Article 9), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, Article 5), the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 6) and the European Union (EU) Returns Directive (Article 15)65. 62 A/HRC/44/57/Add.2, Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Visit to the Netherlands, 2 July 2020. 63 CCPR/C/NLD/CO/5, para 23, Concluding Observations on the fifth periodic report of the Netherlands. 64 Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Report by Nils Muiznieks following his visit to the Netherlands from 20-22 May 2014, October 2014. 65 Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals. 15