Previous UPR and UN Treaty bodies’ recommendations to Montenegro 6. Montenegro was previously reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review during the 38th session in 2018 (Third Cycle), the 23rd session in 2013 (Second Cycle), and the 10th session in 2009 (First Cycle). There has been some positive progress in the implementation of these recommendations, although challenges still remain. 7. During the Third Cycle, Montenegro received a recommendation by Namibia ‘to introduce into law a mechanism to expedite the determination of statelessness’,4 which it accepted, and by the Philippines to ‘facilitate the processing and obtaining of necessary documentation, such as civil registration papers, for the thousands of stateless persons in the country’,5 which it noted. 8. During the Second Cycle, Montenegro received a recommendation by the Holy See to ‘continue the efforts to achieve an effective registration of all births, with special attention to children belonging to ethnic minorities’,6 by Mexico to ‘simplify the procedure for birth registration of persons born outside health-care institutions to contribute to measures carried out to eliminate discrimination’, 7 and by Brazil to ‘establish a simple and accessible procedure of birth registration to guarantee that all children have access to it’.8 Montenegro also received a recommendation from Germany to ‘ratify the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and take concrete steps at national level to prevent and eliminate the causes that lead to statelessness’,9 and Austria made a similar recommendation.10 Montenegro accepted all these recommendations. 9. During the First Cycle, Montenegro received a recommendation by Slovenia to ‘clarify the legal status of refugees from neighbouring States, with a focus on the prevention of statelessness’,11 which it accepted. 10. In 2018, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called for effective implementation of ‘a simplified procedure for birth registration, including by further sensitizing Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian parents to the importance of birth registration and to the existence of such a procedure’. 12 The CERD also called on Montenegro to ‘ensure the registration of children in cases where the mother is unknown or lacks an identification document and continue efforts to provide them with identification documents and with legal aid, when necessary, for birth registration’. 13 Similar recommendations were reiterated by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, with a special focus on Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children, children who were 4 Human Rights Council (HRC), Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 18 April 2018, A/HRC/38/13, para 105.144. 5 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 18 April 2018, A/HRC/38/13, para 106.115. 6 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 21 March 2013, A/HRC/23/12, para 117.32. 7 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 21 March 2013, A/HRC/23/12, para 119.10. 8 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 21 March 2013, A/HRC/23/12, para 119.11. 9 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 21 March 2013, A/HRC/23/12, para 119.5. 10 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 21 March 2013, A/HRC/23/12, para 119.6. 11 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Montenegro, 6 January 2009, A/HRC/10/74, para 19. 12 CERD, Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Montenegro, 19 September 2018, CERD/C/MNE/CO/4-6, para 15(e). 13 CERD, Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Montenegro, 19 September 2018, CERD/C/MNE/CO/4-6, para 15(f). The CERD made similar recommendations in a previous report. See CERD, Concluding observations on the combined second and third periodic reports of Montenegro, 13 March 2014, CERD/C/MNE/CO/2-3, para 12(d)-(e) and 14(b). 2