A/63/161 used by domestic naturalization authorities were expressed in an urgent appeal sent jointly by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 37 43. Furthermore, the right to a nationality is enshrined, inter alia, in article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 20 of the American Convention on Human Rights. Article 24 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantee the right to every child to acquire a nationality. Article 7 of the latter should be read in conjunction with its article 2, one of the Convention’s general principles, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of, inter alia, religion or belief. The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness equally recognizes the right to a nationality and its article 9 provides that a “Contracting State may not deprive any person or group of persons of their nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds”. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons also stipulates that the provisions of the Convention shall apply without discrimination as to religion (art. 2). 44. In its resolution 41/70 on international cooperation to avert new flows of refugees, the General Assembly called upon all States to comply with the recommendations of the report of the Group of Governmental Experts to Avert New Flows of Refugees (A/41/324, annex) and, in particular, the recommendation to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms and to refrain from denying them on the basis of, inter alia, religion (ibid., para. 66 (d)). Furthermore, reference should also be made to Human Rights Council resolution 7/10, 38 in which the Council called upon States to refrain from taking discriminatory measures and from enacting or maintaining legislation that would arbitrarily deprive persons of their nationality. The Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights decided in 2000 to appoint a special rapporteur on the rights of non-citizens. In his final report, the Special Rapporteur, David Weissbrodt, concluded that all persons should by virtue of their essential humanity enjoy all human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, unless exceptional distinctions, for example, between citizens and non-citizens, serve a legitimate State objective and are proportional to the achievement of that objective. 39 2. Access to and contents of official documents 45. Denying official documents to members of certain religions or limiting the right to receive these documents to members of particular religious groups is in contravention of the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, as mentioned above. With regard to the compulsory mentioning of selected religions on official documents, the Special Rapporteur has emphasized that “to exclude any mention of religions other than Islam, Christianity or Judaism would appear to be a violation of international law”. 40 Even the optional reference to a __________________ 37 38 39 40 08-43442 A/HRC/4/21/Add.1, paras. 152-158 (on Germany). See draft report of the Human Rights Council on its seventh session (A/HRC/7/L.11), chap. I, sect. A. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/23, para. 1. E/CN.4/2004/63, para. 42 (on Egypt). See also the most recent communications report of the Special Rapporteur (A/HRC/7/10/Add.1), paras. 79-85. 15