A/HRC/31/29 the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance further guarantee the right of every child to preserve and to re-establish his or her identity, including nationality. 5. The above-mentioned norms are complemented by the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. The Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness is of particular importance with regard to the right of every child to acquire a nationality, given that it sets out concrete and detailed obligations for States parties to the Convention in its articles 1 to 4 on ensuring the avoidance of childhood statelessness. These include safeguards for children born on the territory of a State party or to a parent who is a national of a State party where the child would otherwise be stateless, as well as a specific provision to ensure the right to a nationality for foundlings and children born on a ship or aircraft. 6. Regional instruments also guarantee the right of every child to acquire a nationality. These include the European Convention on Nationality, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (art. 6), the American Convention on Human Rights (art. 20) and the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam (art. 7). Other regional instruments, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, the Human Rights Declaration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Commonwealth of Independent States Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, reaffirm the right of every person to a nationality in more general terms. The right of every child to a nationality has also been reaffirmed through decisions of regional human rights courts and mechanisms, including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (in the case of Yean and Bosic v. Dominican Republic), the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (in the case of Nubian minors v. Kenya) and the European Court of Human Rights (in the cases of Genovese v. Malta and Mennesson v. France). A number of States recognize the right of every child to a nationality in their constitutions or specific legislation. 2 A. Non-discrimination and best interests of the child 7. The provisions that protect the right of every child to acquire a nationality should be read in the light of general principles of international human rights law, including the guiding principles that inform the implementation of all rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.3 Critical among these are the principles of non-discrimination and the best interests of the child. 8. The principle of non-discrimination is a governing principle in international human rights law and applies to the interpretation and realization of the right to a nationality. 4 It implies that children have the right to acquire a nationality, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parents’ or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. 5 Where a child is precluded from obtaining a nationality on discriminatory grounds, this amounts to arbitrary deprivation of nationality.6 Article 9(2) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women requires States to grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children, echoing the obligation contained in articles 2 and 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 7 Furthermore, there can be 2 3 4 5 6 7 Submissions from Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala and the Ombudsman of Croatia. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 5 (2003). See A/HRC/13/34, para. 18, and A/HRC/19/43, para. 2. Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2(1). For other examples of arbitrary deprivation of nationality, see A/HRC/13/34, para. 23. See CRC/C/JOR/CO/4-5. See also A/HRC/23/23. 3