1. MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS
TO SOLVE STATELESSNESS
follow up has been uneven,37 with some States prioritising it more
highly than others.
The second cycle of UPR reviews began in 2012 and concluded in
2016. As of the 25th session (May 2016), the second cycle had included
315 recommendations on statelessness or the right to a nationality,
representing around 1% of all UPR recommendations.38 Of these
recommendations 131 mention statelessness specifically.39 Of those 131,
76 relate to ratification of the UN Statelessness Conventions. More than
two-thirds of the remainder were addressed to three States; Dominican
Republic, Kuwait and Estonia. A further 227 recommendations in the
second cycle dealt with related issues such as birth registration, access
to documentation or gender discrimination but did not refer specifically
to statelessness or nationality (in what follows these are referred to as
the broadly relevant recommendations).40 When considering how to
use the UPR, it is worth paying attention to these recommendations as
well as those dealing directly with statelessness as they may be more
likely to be made and accepted (see below) and, while they may not
help to raise awareness of statelessness issues per se, they can provide
opportunities for engaging with the SuR and advocating for change.41
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There are some indications that the third UPR cycle, which will begin in 2017,
will include a greater focus on following-up on previous recommendations. In
particular, OHCHR has developed matrices which aim to consistently collect
information on the implementation of previous recommendations.
UPR Info, Statistics of UPR recommendations, UPR Info website, http://
www.upr-info.org/database/statistics/index.php?cycle=2 records 30,926
recommendations in the 13th to 24th sessions. At these sessions there were
301 recommendations on statelessness or right to nationality. By way of
comparison, UPR Info’s statistics record 5,963 recommendations on women’s
rights, 5,610 on rights of the child, 1,583 on migrants, 1,526 on minorities,
1,183 on persons with disabilities, 578 on indigenous peoples, 528 on asylum
seekers or refugees and 103 on internally displaced persons.
This count inevitably omits some recommendations that were in fact intended and
understood as referring to stateless persons such as those to Estonia using the
term “non-citizens” and those to Kuwait using the term “bidoon”. Nevertheless it is
interesting to include such figures as they reflect the results that would be seen by
someone searching for occurrences of “stateless” in the UPR recommendations.
Recommendations on withdrawal of reservations to CEDAW which do not
make a specific reference to Article 9 are also included in this group.
For instance, any recommendation referring in general terms to reforming
national laws which discriminate against women can be used to address
discriminatory provisions in nationality laws, although this may not have been
the law that the recommending State had in mind.
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