A/HRC/4/WG.3/6 page 20 stateless persons with the prohibition of distinctions made on the grounds of race, ethnic or national origin. Article 3 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons stipulates that the provisions of this treaty should be applied to stateless persons without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin while article 9 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness prohibits the deprivation of one’s nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds. Finally, the 1985 Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who are not Nationals of the Country in which They Live extends the principles of protection laid down therein to all aliens without difference, including nationals of other States and stateless persons. Article 7 of this Declaration specifically makes illegal individual or collective expulsion of aliens on grounds of race, colour, religion, culture, descent or national or ethnic origin. 61. In its general recommendation No. 30 (2005) on discrimination against non-citizens, CERD asserts that article 1, paragraph 2 of ICERD, which permits differentiation between citizens and non-citizens, “… must be construed so as to avoid undermining the basic prohibition of discrimination;”43 CERD further confirms that although some of the rights pronounced in article 5 of the Convention may be confined only to citizens, “… human rights are, in principle, to be enjoyed by all persons. States parties are under an obligation to guarantee equality between citizens and non-citizens in the enjoyment of these rights to the extent recognized under international law.”44 In the same general recommendation, CERD also urges States parties to take a number of actions to protect the human rights of non-citizens, including inter alia by ensuring that non-citizens enjoy equal protection and recognition before the law and access to citizenship or naturalization. 62. The Human Rights Committee in its general comment No. 15 (1986) on the position of aliens under the Covenant, reconfirms that aliens are protected under ICCPR by emphasizing that “in general, the rights set forth in the Covenant apply to everyone, irrespective of reciprocity, and irrespective of his or her nationality or statelessness.”45 In general comment No. 17 (1989) on article 24 (Rights of the child), the Human Rights Committee asserts that, “no discrimination with regard to the acquisition of nationality should be admissible under international law as between legitimate children and children born out of wedlock or of stateless parents or based on the nationality status of one or both of the parents.”46 General comment No. 27 (1999) on article 12, paragraph 4 (Freedom of movement) specifies that the right of a person to enter his or her own country recognizes the special relationship of a person to that 43 Paragraph 2. 44 Paragraph 3. 45 Paragraph 1. 46 Paragraph 8.