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 over 90 countries specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons. 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. 7. This submission draws on the research, advocacy and engagement of the co-submitting organisations to focus on the following issues: I. II. III. Gender discrimination in Bahrain’s nationality law; Arbitrary deprivation of nationality and statelessness; and Human rights violations faced by stateless people. Previous UPR Reviews of Bahrain 8. Bahrain was previously reviewed during the 1st (First Cycle - 2008), 13th (Second Cycle 2012), and 36th (Third Cycle - 2017) sessions of the UPR.6 9. In 2008, Bahrain received nine recommendations related to the right to nationality and citizenship. In 2013, six recommendations were made by India, Uruguay, Japan, Norway, Algeria and Sudan regarding nationality and statelessness in relation to gender discrimination, which Bahrain accepted. 7 In 2017, fourteen recommendations on the right to nationality and statelessness were made to Bahrain, seven of which it accepted and the remainder of which it noted. For a full list of relevant recommendations, please see the Annex to this submission. 10. Although Bahrain accepted six recommendations on ensuring gender equal nationality rights through national law reforms, a framework to implement these measures remains absent. Bahrain’s International Obligations 11. Bahrain is not a signatory to either the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. However, Bahrain has international obligations to protect the right to a nationality and the rights of stateless persons on the basis of other UN and regional treaties to which it is a party. These include, among others, 8 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR - article 24.3), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR - articles. 2.2 and article 3), Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC - articles 2, 3, 7 and 8), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW - article 9), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD - article 5(d)(iii)), Convention on the Rights of Persons with 6 For more information about Bahrain under the Universal Periodic Review, see: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/BHindex.aspx. 7 UN Human Rights Council, 'Report of the Working Group on the Universal Period Review: Bahrain', A/HRC/21/6, (6 July 2012), Recommendation 115.95., available at: https://www.upr-info.org/sites/default/files/document/bahrain/session_13__may_2012/ahrc216bahraine.pdf. 8 For more information, see: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx?clang=_en. 2