government summoned him for deportation following a MOI nationality revocation order which was issued in January 2015.34 24. These acts of arbitrary deprivation of nationality of citizens for exercising their rights to free expression, belief, and association, are creating new cases of statelessness. The OHCHR has expressed its concern that the arbitrary deprivation of nationality may also lead to statelessness with serious consequences for the protection of the human rights of the individual’s concerned.35 A particularly worrying phenomenon is that new-born children of persons who have been stripped of their nationality will be affected. Those born after the father was stripped of nationality will not obtain Bahraini nationality from their father, who no longer holds it, or from their Bahraini mother due to the gender-discriminatory nature of the Bahraini nationality law. It is highly likely therefore that there have been cases of children who have been born stateless due to this discrimination. Lack of research and statistics 25. One further significant problem which clouds the other concerns raised above is that there is very little research on the statistics, profiles and context of the various stateless groups in Bahrain. There are no government initiatives to identify them in order to resolve their problem. In Bahrain there is no statelessness determination procedure to preform identification nor has there been an attempt to collect information on the remaining cases. Currently UNHCR has no figure for the number of stateless persons in Bahrain and has left it unknown.36 Developed research and statistics would give the State more understanding on the profiles of the stateless in Bahrain, as well as a developed understanding on the consequences of its policies of the revocation of citizenship. Human rights abuses of the stateless 26. Being born stateless in Bahrain is in and of itself a human rights abuse. Nationality is an inherent human right.37 Additionally however, not holding citizenship can lead to other violations of human rights. Being stateless in Bahrain may mean that you are unable to access various employment opportunities, or, in violation of Article 7 of the CRC, to register a new-born baby. A stateless individual may not be able to instruct a lawyer, own property, have access to health and social services and they may have difficulties with regards to access to education at schools and universities,38 violating several of the States international obligations under the ICCPR and CRC. Being stateless in Bahrain means that an individual is both stripped of the ability to travel outside Bahrain, and - because Bahrain is a country where checkpoints are rife - internal travel also 34 Ibid. OHCHR, Bahrain should stop persecution of Shi’a Muslims and return its citizenship to their spiritual leader, 2014, access athttp://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14533&LangI%20D=E 36 2014 UNHCR statistical yearbook reporting 37 For example, the right to nationality is prescribed under Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 38 Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Stateless in Bahrain, 2014 access at http://bahrainrights.org/sites/default/files/Stateless%20in%20Bahrain%20-%20Final.pdf 35

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