The Right to a Nationality Equality in Nationality Rights in Law and in Practice

A/HRC/RES/53/16View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2023.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Equality Before the Law Gender Equality International Obligations Right to Nationality Statelessness

What does this mandate say?

24 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the right to a nationality is a universal human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that everyone has the right to a nationality, without distinction of any kind;

Recognizes that it is up to each State to determine by law who its nationals are, provided that such determination is consistent with its obligations under international law, including with respect to non-discrimination;

Calls upon all States to adopt and implement nationality legislation, consistent with their obligations under international law, including with respect to the elimination of all forms of discrimination, with a view to preventing and reducing statelessness;

Urges all States to refrain from enacting or maintaining discriminatory nationality legislation, policies and practices, in a manner consistent with their respective obligations under international law, with a view to avoiding statelessness and loss of nationality, preventing vulnerability to human rights violations and abuses, decreasing the risk of exploitation and abuse, and eliminating discrimination against all women and girls in the acquisition, change, retention or conferral of nationality;

Urges States to take immediate steps to reform nationality laws that discriminate against women regarding the acquisition, change or retention of their nationality and the conferral of nationality on their children and spouses;

Urges States that have reformed nationality laws to ensure the effective implementation of those laws, including through awareness-raising and publicity, and training of public officials, including judges and local leaders, that is gender-responsive and sensitive to race and diversity, informed by meaningful consultation and engagement with stateless leaders and communities and wider civil society;

Urges States to refrain from gender-based discrimination in access to documents used to prove nationality, in particular passports, identity documents and birth certificates, and, where relevant, marriage certificates;

Calls upon States to identify and remove physical, administrative, procedural and any other barriers that impede access to registration of vital events, including birth, marriage and death registration, and also calls upon States to establish or strengthen existing institutions at all levels responsible for birth registration and to remove barriers to birth registration due to discrimination, including against unwed mothers, and policies requiring proof of marriage for a parent to register their child’s birth, including for internally displaced persons, refugees and asylum-seekers;

Also calls upon States to undertake initiatives to ensure that persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, including those in hard-to-reach areas or nomadic persons, are aware of and able to exercise their rights, including the right of everyone to a nationality, as set out in article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and complemented by the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and in other international human rights commitments, and recommends that all measures taken with a view to implementing the Declaration be, to the fullest extent possible, developed, designed, implemented and reviewed with the effective and equal participation of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities;

Further calls upon States to review their laws, policies and practices that may cause statelessness, and directly engage with affected individuals to identify challenges and find solutions;

Calls upon States to ensure that effective and appropriate remedies are available to all persons, including women, children, persons with disabilities, Indigenous individuals, persons of African descent, and persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, whose rights related to nationality have been violated, including restoration of nationality and expedient provision of documentary proof of nationality by the State responsible for the violation;

Encourages States to continue to raise these issues in the context of the universal periodic review and to consider recommendations towards promoting equality in nationality rights in law and in practice;

Also encourages States to consider acceding to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and relevant international human rights conventions if they have not already done so;

Calls upon States to implement their international legal obligations to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, and also to identify potential victims and survivors of trafficking within mixed migration flows and to provide appropriate assistance to persons who may be victims of trafficking, including stateless persons, and those at risk of statelessness as a result of trafficking, paying particular attention to the needs of women and children in vulnerable situations;

Calls upon all States to ensure that all persons, regardless of their nationality status, enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Encourages States to facilitate, in accordance with their national laws, the acquisition of nationality by children born on their territories or to their nationals abroad who would otherwise be stateless;

Urges States to take concrete action to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of its reviews, and to ensure non-discrimination under the law, including with respect to nationality;

Recognizes the importance of international cooperation, and encourages States to request technical assistance, if required and where appropriate, from relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant stakeholders, in order to make reforms to eliminate from their nationality laws all forms of discrimination against women;

Encourages States to address the challenge of statelessness and vulnerability that emerges when human rights are not fully respected and implemented, and when developing, implementing and monitoring national plans of action or other relevant mechanisms for the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, recognizing the need to achieve gender equality and to empower all women and girls and the importance of providing legal identity for all, and to leave no one behind, and encourages development actors to support the capacity of Governments to implement these efforts;

Also encourages States to develop and implement national plans of action to end statelessness, in consultation with organizations led by those affected by statelessness and wider civil society, and encourages the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other concerned United Nations agencies to provide technical assistance to support these efforts, if requested and as appropriate;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in coordination with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

To organize, prior to the fifty-sixth session of the Human Rights Council, a half-day expert workshop, in an accessible format, to showcase best practices in the promotion of equal nationality rights in law and in practice;

To encourage States, relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, intergovernmental organizations, the treaty bodies, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, regional human rights mechanisms, civil society organizations, academia, national human rights institutions and other relevant stakeholders to participate actively in the workshop, and to take special measures to facilitate the participation of persons affected by statelessness in the workshop;

To prepare a summary report on the above-mentioned workshop, including any recommendations stemming therefrom, and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-seventh session.

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