ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

26. The Committee urges the State party to establish a designated statelessness determination procedure and take the necessary steps to identify and protect stateless persons in Armenia and to reduce statelessness, in order to better fulfil its obligations under articles 1, 2 and 5 of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 30 (2004) on discrimination against non-citizens.

5. Reiterating its previous recommendations and recalling its general recommendation No. 8 (1990) concerning the interpretation and application of article 1 (1) and (4) of the Convention, and its guidelines for reporting under the Convention, the Committee recommends that the State party collect and provide to the Committee reliable, updated and comprehensive statistics on the demographic composition of the population, based on the principle of self-identification, including on ethnic and ethno-religious minority groups, including Roma, and non-citizens, such as migrant workers, asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons. It also recommends that the State party produce disaggregated statistics on the socioeconomic situation of ethnic and ethno-religious minority groups, including Roma, and non-citizens, and on their access to education, employment, healthcare and housing, with a view to creating an empirical basis for assessing the equal enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Convention.

13. The Committee recommends that the State party: (...)

(b) Ensure effective and meaningful consultation with and the participation of civil society organizations working on the rights of persons belonging to groups vulnerable to racial discrimination, such as ethnic and ethno-religious minority groups, particularly Roma, and non-citizens, such as migrant workers, undocumented migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons, particularly in relation to the development, monitoring and implementation of policies; (...)

23. Reiterating its previous recommendations and recalling its general recommendation No. 27 (2000) on discrimination against Roma, the Committee recommends that the State party: (...)

(d) Expedite the registration of non-documented members of the Roma communities and the process for issuing identity and birth registration documents; (...)

28. The Committee notes the information provided by the delegation on the conditions for stateless persons to access nationality, which are based on the length of permanent and legal residence or birth and school attendance in the State party. The Committee is nevertheless concerned about the delay in developing and implementing a dedicated determination procedure in relation to statelessness, pursuant to the provisions of Law No. 4375/2016. It is also concerned about reports that stateless persons face obstacles in gaining access to education and health services (arts. 2 and 5).

29. The Committee recommends that the State party establish a dedicated and effective procedure for determining statelessness. It also recommends that the State party take measures to ensure that stateless persons are able to enjoy their economic and social rights without discrimination.

30. (...) The Committee encourages the State party to accede to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

6. Recalling its previous recommendations, general recommendation No. 8 (1990) concerning the interpretation and application of article 1 (1) and (4) of the Convention, and its guidelines for reporting under the Convention, the Committee recommends that the State party collect and provide to the Committee reliable, updated and comprehensive statistics on the demographic composition of the population, based on the principle of self-identification, including on ethno-religious groups, people of African descent, stateless persons and non-citizens, particularly undocumented migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees. It also recommends that the State party produce disaggregated statistics on the socioeconomic situation of ethno-religious minority groups, people of African descent and non-citizens and on their access to education, employment, healthcare and housing, with a view to creating an empirical basis for assessing the equal enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Convention.

17.(...) the Committee is concerned about the lack of detailed and disaggregated information on complaints of racial discrimination, investigations, prosecutions, and convictions and sanctions by domestic courts.

18. Recalling its general recommendation No. 31 (2005) on the prevention of racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system, the Committee recommends that the State party: (...)

(b) Undertake public education campaigns on the rights enshrined in the
Convention and on how to file complaints of racial discrimination, particularly in order to inform ethno-religious minority groups, people of African descent, migrants, asylum-seekers and stateless persons; (...)

19 (...) the Committee is concerned:

(...)

(b) That the criminalization of hate speech and hate crime under the legislative framework is based on vague concepts, such as “undermining public order” or “contradicts public morals”, and that the criminalization of hate speech and hate crimes only applies when nationals are the victims of it, excluding groups vulnerable to racial discrimination such as migrants and stateless persons;

(c) About reports of the spread of racist hate speech and the dissemination of negative stereotypes against ethno-religious minority groups, people of African descent, migrants and stateless persons, including on the Internet and social media;

32. Reiterating its previous recommendations, and recalling its general recommendation No. 30 (2004) on discrimination against non-citizens, the Committee recommends that the State party review and amend its legislative framework, in particular the Law on Nationality, to allow Saudi women married to non-Saudi citizens to transmit their nationality to their children from birth, on an equal footing with Saudi men.

34. Recalling its general recommendation No. 25 (2000) on gender-related
dimensions of racial discrimination, and reiterating its previous  recommendations, the Committee recommends that the State party review its legislative and policy frameworks to eliminate all barriers and restrictions faced by women belonging to ethno-religious minority groups, women of African descent, women migrant workers, women domestic workers, women human rights defenders and activists, women in detention and migrant and stateless women, and ensure their equal access to employment, education, healthcare and justice. To this end, it recommends that the State party incorporate a minority women perspective into all gender-related policies and strategies.

45. The Committee is concerned about the lack of statistics on stateless persons (Bidoon) and their socioeconomic situation, and about reports of discrimination faced by the Bidoon in access to employment, education, healthcare and other basic services. It is concerned about the lack of a dedicated determination procedure in relation to statelessness.

46. The Committee recommends that the State party adopt measures to reduce and prevent statelessness and to establish a dedicated and effective determination procedure in relation to statelessness. It also recommends that the State party ensure that stateless persons, particularly the Bidoon, enjoy all human rights without discrimination, including access to work, housing, education and healthcare.

51. (...) The Committee encourages the State party to accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

33. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(d) Intensify measures to prevent and address all forms of discrimination and xenophobia against migrants, refugees, stateless persons and asylum-seekers.

129.192 Take measures to ensure the elimination of all forms of ethnic discrimination against the Lhotshampas, guaranteeing their rights to nationality, health and education, as well as their cultural rights.

117.218 Develop a national action plan to reduce statelessness and protect stateless persons, with the support, technical advice and experience of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other stakeholders.

33. While noting that article 1.7 (3) of the Criminal Code prohibits the extradition of foreign nationals or stateless persons for the purpose of investigation or punishment of an offence where there is a risk of torture or the imposition of death penalty, the Committee remains concerned that several bilateral and multilateral agreements concluded by the State party, including those signed with Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2018 and 2019 respectively, contain broadly worded provisions which do not seem to specifically cover instances related to sufficient grounds to consider a risk of torture. Furthermore, the Committee notes with concern that the State party has not acceded to the international conventions on the rights of refugees and stateless persons, and that its domestic legislation, the Constitution and the Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens do not provide a sufficient framework for a national asylum determination procedure that allows for a thorough individual assessment of whether there is a substantial risk that the applicant would be subjected to torture in the country of destination. While noting the statistics provided by the State party on the expulsion of 1,360 foreign nationals between 2020 and 2024, the Committee regrets the absence of statistics on asylum applications received and refugee status granted during the period under review, the reportedly low rate of refugee recognition in the State party and the lack of a registration database of migrants and stateless persons (arts. 2, 3 and 16).

34. The State party should ensure that no one may be expelled, returned or extradited to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would run a personal and foreseeable risk of being subjected to torture. In particular, the State party should take all necessary steps to bring its bilateral and multilateral agreements on extradition into conformity with the principle of non-refoulement. The State party should further take all legislative steps to establish comprehensive national asylum legislation and procedures that provide effective protection to asylum-seekers and refugees against refoulement to a State where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment, in accordance with article 3 of the Convention. The State party should consider acceding to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

12. Recalling the links between articles 1 and 2 of the Convention and target 5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Fully incorporate the Convention into the domestic legal order and adopt anti-discrimination legislation ensuring formal and substantive equality addressing both direct and indirect discrimination in the public and private spheres, as well as intersecting forms of discrimination faced by disadvantaged groups of women and girls, such as rural women, Indigenous and Afrodescendent women, older women single women, women living in poverty, women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, and asylumseeking, refugee, stateless and migrant women, in line with articles 1 and 2 of the Convention;

32. Recalling its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee recommends that the State party strengthen measures to ensure immediate birth registration for all children born to migrants, including those born in transit to the State party.

50. (...) It further recommends that the State party:

(d) Collect and provide comprehensive disaggregated data on the social and economic situation of asylum-seeking, refugee and stateless women and girls, including their access to justice, education, employment, healthcare and housing, in the next periodic report;

10. The Committee urges the State party to uphold its commitment to women’s human rights, including the right to life, access to justice and the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as well as equality in marriage and family relations. It calls upon the State party to strengthen the application of the Convention in legal proceedings in the State party for the benefit of all women, in particular women migrant domestic workers, women human rights defenders and activists, women in detention, women with disabilities, women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and refugee, asylum-seeking and stateless women. 

26. In line with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) on temporary special measures, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) In adopting and implementing temporary special measures, pay special attention to disadvantaged groups of women, such as Bidoon, stateless and migrant women and girls, women domestic workers, women and girls with disabilities, rural women and girls, older women, women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence;

36. With reference to its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, and recalling its previous recommendation (CEDAW/C/SAU/CO/3-4, para. 42), the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Amend the Nationality Law to recognize the right of Saudi women to transmit their nationality to their children and non-Saudi spouses on equal terms with Saudi men;

(b) Enforce its legislation allowing foreign mothers of Saudi children to register births and obtain documents for their children;

(c) Regularize the situation of stateless women and girls and facilitate their access to Saudi nationality without discrimination;

(d) Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

38. Recalling its general recommendation No. 36 (2017) on the right of girls and women to education, the Committee recommends that the State party raise awareness of the importance of girls’ education as a basis for their empowerment, and:

(e) Allocate the necessary human, technical and financial resources to provide full access to inclusive education for women and girls with disabilities and Bidoon women and girls.

50. Recalling its general recommendation No. 34 (2016) on the rights of rural women, and target 5.a of the Sustainable Development Goals to undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) Ensure that rural women, including Bidoon women and women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, have access to productive means, education, healthcare and other basic services, as well as to labour-saving technologies, markets and services, innovative agricultural technologies, infrastructure, financial support and investment.

19. While welcoming the State party’s efforts to eliminate statelessness and ensure the registration and issuance of birth certificates for all children born in its territory, the Committee recalls its previous concluding observations7 and recommends that the State party:

(a) Facilitate the naturalization process for stateless children and their eligible family members under the Law on Citizenship;

(b) Remove the requirement for former refugee and stateless children, and children from mixed families who are recognized as Turkmen citizens, to provide a certificate of absence of a second citizenship during each passport renewal;

(c) Improve data collection on the number of stateless individuals, including children, and individuals of undetermined nationality in Turkmenistan and actively cooperate with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees by sharing disaggregated statistics to support the efforts of the Office.

41. Recalling joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration and its general comment No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(c) Ensure that refugee and stateless children who do not have proof of residence registration (propiska) are not deprived of their rights to education, healthcare, social benefits and other essential public services by implementing alternative registration mechanisms or providing special provisions in line with the Convention