abandoned after birth, and children born to refugees.14 Similar recommendations were also made by the Human Rights Committee in 2014, adding that Montenegro should improve birth registrations ‘through appropriate interventions such as awareness-raising programmes aimed at changing mindsets regarding the need to register births or obtain birth certificates’ and ‘take immediate measures to identify children lacking birth registration and/or identity document and to ensure retroactive birth registration and issuance of documents for these children’. 15 In 2014, the Committee Against Torture noted that obstacles to birth registration, in particular for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities, put individuals at risk of statelessness and recommended the establishment of a simplified and accessible procedure for birth registration.16 11. The CERD previously also called on Montenegro to ‘fully implement the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, address the shortcomings in the new statelessness determination procedure and ensure it is well known by those seeking international protection, in particular the remaining stateless persons of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities’.17 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women also recommended that Montenegro ratify the Convention of the Reduction of Statelessness.18 Montenegro’s International obligations 12. With a positive record of accession to human rights instruments, Montenegro has international obligations to protect the right to a nationality and protect the rights of stateless persons. It has been a State Party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons since 2006, and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness since 2013, with no reservations. Montenegro’s obligations also derive from other UN and regional treaties to which it is a party, including: 19 • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see article 24.3) • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (see articles. 2.2 and article 3) • Convention of the Rights of the Child (see articles 2, 3, 7 and 8) • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (see article 9) • International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (see article 5(d)(iii)) • Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (see article 18) • International Convention for the Protection of All persons from Enforced Disappearance (see article 25.4) 14 Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Concluding observations on the combined second and third periodic reports of Montenegro, 22 June 2018, CRC/C/MNE/CO/2-3, para 28. The CRC made similar recommendations in 2010. See CRC, Consideration of reports submitted by states parties under article 44 of the convention, Concluding Observations: Montenegro, 21 October 2010, CRC/C/MNE/CO/1, para 33, 61, 62. 15 Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the initial report of Montenegro, 21 November 2014, CCPR/C/MNE/CO/1, para 17. 16 Committee Against Torture, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Montenegro, 17 June 2014, CAT/C/MNE/CO/2, para 12(b). 17 CERD, Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Montenegro, 19 September 2018, CERD/C/MNE/CO/4-6, para 23. 18 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Montenegro, 4 November 2011, CEDAW/C/MNE/CO/1, para 35. 19 See: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx?clang=_en. 3