support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. This submission partially
draws on information and analysis from ENS’s Statelessness Index, which covers Malta.3
5. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI)4 is the first and only human rights NGO
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 100 country specific UPR (joint) 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
43rd UPR Sessions.
Previous UPR and UN Treaty bodies’ recommendations to
Malta
6. In the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (31st session, 2018), Malta received
recommendations from Austria, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Montenegro, and Sweden to
accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954
Convention) and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961
Convention), which it noted. 5 It also received similar recommendations by the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women6 and the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC). 7 Malta received a recommendation from Mexico to
establish a mechanism to identify stateless persons and guarantee their rights and
protection, which it noted.8 In the Second Cycle (17th session, 2013), Malta received a
recommendation from Sierra Leone to ensure birth registration for all children born in
Malta, which it accepted,9 and the CRC made similar recommendations.10
7. The CRC also recommended in 2019 that Malta strengthen efforts to establish the
nationality of children with undetermined nationality and establish a statelessness
determination procedure with an identification and referral mechanism for children
who are undocumented and at risk of statelessness. In 2013, the CRC recommended that
children born in Malta to foreign parents who are unable to pass on their nationality, to
stateless parents, or to parents with unknown nationality are granted nationality.11
Malta’s International obligations
8. In line with the recommendations received under the UPR and the pledge made at
3
ENS, Statelessness Index: Czech Republic, https://index.statelessness.eu/country/czech-republic.
For more information, see https://www.institutesi.org/
5 Human Rights Council (HRC), Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, 18 December 2018,
A/HRC/40/17, paragraphs 111.9 (recommendation from Austria), 111.10 (recommendation from Sweden), 111.11
(recommendation from Côte d’Ivoire, Costa Rica and Montenegro).
6 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Concluding observations, 9 November 2010,
CEDAW/C/MLT/CO/4, paragraph 39.
7 Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Concluding observations on the combined third to sixth periodic reports of Malta,
26 June 2019, CRC/C/MLT/CO/3-6, paragraph 23.d.
8 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, 18 December 2018, A/HRC/40/17, paragraph 111.39.
9 HRC, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, 4 December 2013, A/HRC/25/17, paragraph 102.97.
10
CRC, Concluding observations on the combined third to sixth periodic reports of Malta, 26 June 2019, CRC/C/MLT/CO/3-6,
paragraph 23.a.; CRC, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Malta, adopted by the Committee at its sixtysecond session, 18 June 2013, CRC/C/MLT/CO/2, paragraph 35.
11 CRC, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Malta, adopted by the Committee at its sixty-second session,
18 June 2013, CRC/C/MLT/CO/2, paragraph 35.
4
2