Ireland also received recommendations from 14 Working Group members to accede to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW). Ireland confirmed that there were no plans to accede to the ICRMW. During the 25th session, the then Minister for Justice and Tánaiste referred to the introduction of citizenship ceremonies as an innovation that provides an important symbolic opportunity for the Irish State to welcome new citizens.10 9. In relation to both of Ireland’s previous UPRs, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that the lack of a formal statelessness determination procedure meant that stateless persons may experience difficulties in realising their rights under the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954 Convention) and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961 Convention), and recommended that Ireland: (i) establish a statelessness determination procedure; and (ii) facilitate interim solutions for stateless persons prior to the introduction of such a procedure.11 Ireland’s International obligations 10. Ireland is State party to both the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions, but neither Convention has been fully incorporated into domestic law, which is required for them to have effect in Ireland. It retains a reservation to Article 29 (1) of the 1954 Convention (on fiscal charges) and, when acceding to the 1961 Convention, Ireland stated that it would retain the right to deprive naturalised Irish citizens of their nationality on grounds specified in national law.12 11. Ireland has international obligations to protect the right to a nationality and protect the rights of stateless persons on the basis of other UN and regional treaties to which it is a party. These include, among others the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see Article 24.3), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (see Articles. 2.2 and Article 3), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (see Articles 2, 3, 7 and 8), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (see Article 9), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (see Article 5(d)(iii)) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (see Article 18). 13 Furthermore, the right to a nationality is protected under Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. 12. Ireland is not a State party to the European Convention on Nationality, nor the Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession. Ireland is party to the European Convention on Human Rights but retains a reservation in relation to the provision of free legal aid. 13. In 2020, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recommended that Ireland establish a procedure for the determination of 10 Intervention by the Tánaiste at the Universal Periodic Review 2nd Cycle in Geneva, 11 May 2016: http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/SP16000101. 11 See UNHCR, Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Compilation Report - Universal Periodic Review: Ireland, March 2011, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4d8867982.html; and UNHCR, Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Compilation Report - Universal Periodic Review: Ireland, 2016. 12 Revocation of a certificate of naturalisation is provided for at Section 19(1) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 as amended available at http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1956/act/26/section/19/enacted/en/html. 13 See: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx?clang=_en. 3