other initiatives to address statelessness, such as reforming nationality laws, conducting surveys of stateless populations and creating statelessness determination procedures as required by the 1954 Convention. Encouraging a State to accede to the Statelessness Conventions can involve engagement with a wide range of stakeholders at the national level, including politicians, government officials, community organizations and civil-society groups. UNHCR, which received the request to actively promote accessions from the UN General Assembly in 1995, must play a leading role in this effort.2 UNHCR seized upon the unique opportunity provided by the commemoration in 2011 of the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention to boost its advocacy for accessions to the Statelessness Conventions. These efforts have resulted in 47 additional States party to the Statelessness Conventions since the start of 2011. At a Ministerial Meeting in December 2011 in Geneva, 32 States pledged to accede to the 1961 Statelessness Convention and 22 to accede to the 1954 Statelessness Convention,3 and 44 States have accepted recommendations to accede in the context of the Universal Periodic Review under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council. Where States are interested in working towards accession to the Statelessness Conventions but lack the capacity to initiate the process, UNHCR can help, usually in coordination with national authorities and civil society, and sometimes regional organizations or UN partners. Such assistance could include: nn Sensitizing a country’s political leadership to the importance of addressing statelessness. This could be done, for instance, by senior managers of UNHCR by way of encouraging accession when visiting countries that are not party to the Conventions or by sending letters to government counterparts nn Studying the compatibility of national legislation and jurisprudence with the Statelessness Conventions and related human rights standards and discussing the findings with government and civil-society actors nn Organizing joint UNHCR and government round-table discussions at the national and/or regional level(s) nn Translating and launching with national parliaments UNHCR’s brochures on the Statelessness Conventions and Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians, a joint publication of UNHCR and the Inter-Parliamentary Union nn Engaging with the government entities responsible for treaty approval at the national level nn Pursuing follow-up activities with States that have acceded to either or both of the Conventions to translate its international treaty obligations into concrete legislation and policies Below are highlighted some key elements of successful efforts by UNHCR to promote accession to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions in the Philippines, Croatia and West Africa. A number of good practices emerge from these case studies and could be replicated in States that have pledged to accede to the Conventions. 2 UN General Assembly Resolution A/Res/50/152 of 21 December 1995. 3 For a full list of States which made pledges, as well as an update of implementation, please see UNHCR, Draft Overview of Pledges [Extracts Relating to Statelessness], 1 August 2013, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/52428fa04.html 2 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS