A/HRC/4/105 Page 5 I. STATUS OF RATIFICATION OF RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 6. In its resolution 2005/48, paragraph 5, the Commission “encourages States that have not already done so to consider acceding to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, as far as possible without reservations, and to relevant regional instruments concerning refugees, as applicable, and other relevant international instruments of human rights and humanitarian law, and also encourages States to consider lifting reservations that they may have made to such instruments and to take appropriate measures to disseminate and implement those instruments domestically in order to encourage compliance with provisions against arbitrary and forcible displacement and greater respect for the rights of those who flee”. 7. Since the last report of the High Commissioner on human rights and mass exoduses1, a number of countries have acceded to international instruments directly relevant to the issue of mass exoduses. Most recently, Montenegro has acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The total number of States parties which have acceded to one or both of these instruments is now 144.2 On 23 October 2006, Montenegro also ratified the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. There are now 62 States parties to this instrument3. That same month, Rwanda ratified the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, bringing the number of States parties to 33.4 8. At the regional level, 45 countries have ratified the African Union Convention governing the specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa. A number of countries, including Djibouti, Madagascar, Mauritius and Somalia, have signed but not yet ratified the treaty.5 9. Regarding international human rights instruments, the High Commissioner notes with appreciation that a number of States have acceded to the core human rights treaties, notably the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.6 1 Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on human rights and mass exoduses, E/CN.4/2005/80 2 UNHCR, http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b73b0d63.pdf 3 UNHCR, http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3bbb0abc7.pdf 4 UNHCR, http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3bbb24d54.pdf 5 African Union, list of countries which have signed, ratified/acceded to the Convention http://www.africaunion.org/root/au/Documents/Treaties/List/Convention%20on%20Refugees.pdf 6 Since the last report of the High Commissioner on human rights and mass exoduses, a number of States have become parties to the core human rights treaties. A non-exhaustive list is presented below. All information regarding the status of ratifications of human rights treaties can be found on the OHCHR website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/countries/ratification/