Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 41st Session of the Universal Periodic Review. THE NETHERLANDS Introduction 1. The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the right to a nationality and human rights challenges pertaining to deprivation of nationality or citizenship stripping 1 in the Netherlands in a national security context – where nationality has been instrumentalised with a view to countering terrorism. 2. This submission focuses on: • The prohibition of discrimination in relation to nationality deprivation measures; • The prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality; • The prohibition against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the prevention of childhood statelessness in relation to nationality deprivation measures. 3. The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) 2 is a civil society alliance of NGOs, lawyers, academics, and other independent experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe, with over 170 members in 41 European countries. ENS organises its work around three pillars – law and policy development, awarenessraising, and capacity-building. This submission partially draws on information and analysis from the Statelessness Index on the Netherlands,3 maintained and developed by ENS and its members. The Index is an online comparative tool that assesses European countries’ law, policy and practice on the protection of stateless people and the prevention and reduction of statelessness against international norms and good practice. 4. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI)4 is the first and only human rights NGO dedicated to working on statelessness at the global level. ISI’s mission is to promote inclusive societies by realising and protecting everyone’s right to a nationality. The Institute has made more than 80 country specific UPR submissions on the right to a nationality and the human rights of stateless people. ISI has also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 40th UPR Sessions.5 1 Please note that sometimes other terms are also used to refer to deprivation of nationality, including revocation of nationality. 2 For more information about the European Network on Statelessness: www.statelessness.eu. 3 See https://index.statelessness.eu/country/netherlands. 4 For more information about the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion: https://www.institutesi.org/. 5 For more information: https://www.institutesi.org/pages/universal-periodic-review. 1