1. MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS
TO SOLVE STATELESSNESS
In other respects the Committee has been less consistent. Thirty-seven
States, including Poland and Kyrgyzstan which each have stateless
populations in excess of 10,000,84 received no broadly relevant
recommendations. Of these 37 States, 23 are not parties to one or both
of the UN Statelessness Conventions. While a few States have received
recommendations to bring nationality laws into alignment with the
1961 Statelessness Convention,85 such recommendations have not been
made consistently to States Parties to that Convention. These variations
perhaps reflect a greater caution about making recommendations
outside the core content of Article 9. The same might be discerned in
the recommendations on the application of jus soli to the children of
migrant women. In 2012 the Committee expressed concern about this
issue, but limited its recommendations to cases where the mother is
unable to transmit her nationality.86 Dealing with a similar problem in
the Dominican Republic the following year, CEDAW expressed concern
about the broad interpretation of an exception to jus soli for foreigners
in transit, and recommended that the State:
(a) Review the legal provisions on nationality and their
implementation in respect of women of Haitian descent and
their children;
(b) Remove all the obstacles for women of Haitian descent and
women of uncertain status to obtaining birth certificates for
their children, ensuring their access to all rights;
(c) Adopt a flexible procedure for regularizing the status of
women of Haitian descent and their children, taking into account
the length of their presence in the State party.87
84
85
86
87
periodic reports of Brunei Darussalam, 14 November 2014, CEDAW/C/BRN/
CO/1-2, paras. 28-29.
UNHCR, Statistical Yearbook, supra n46, Annex Table 7.
CEDAW, Concluding observations on the eighth periodic report of Denmark,
11 March 2015, CEDAW/C/DNK/CO/8, paras. 25-26; CEDAW, Concluding
observations on the fifth periodic report of Lithuania, 24 July 2014, CEDAW/C/
LTU/CO/5, paras. 30-31.
CEDAW, Concluding observations on the fifth and sixth periodic reports of
Chile, 12 November 2012, CEDAW/C/CHL/CO/5-6, paras. 26-27.
CEDAW, Concluding observations on the combined sixth and seventh periodic
reports of the Dominican Republic, 30 July 2013, CEDAW/C/DOM/CO/6-7,
paras. 30-31.
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