Switzerland, 7 December 2011 / UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres congratulating the representative from the Philippines on the country’s ratification of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (which took place on 22 September 2011) at UNHCR’s ministerial conference on the world’s forcibly displaced and stateless, at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. © UNHCR / Jean-Marc Ferré Parallel to these efforts at the national level, UNHCR included Philippine representatives in a number of events to raise awareness of statelessness at the regional and international levels. For instance, Philippine government representatives participated in two expert meetings examining doctrinal issues arising under the 1954 and 1961 Conventions organized by UNHCR in 2010 and 2011. At the regional level, UNHCR invited four participants from the Government and civil society to an October 2010 regional expert meeting on Good Practices for the Identification, Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and the Protection of Stateless Persons in South-East Asia. Following this event, UNHCR collaborated with the AICHR, and especially the Philippines’ representative to this regional human rights body, to increase awareness of the need to resolve statelessness in South-East Asia. Based on the conclusions of the inter-agency round-table discussions in 2010 and 2011, all the concerned agencies of the Government issued their Certificates of Concurrence for the ratification of the 1954 Statelessness Convention and the President signed the instrument of ratification on 30 May 2011. The Philippines became party to the Convention on 22 September 2011, when it deposited its instrument of ratification at the United Nations Annual Treaty Event in New York. 4 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS