The Philippines HIGHLIGHTS OF PROMOTION EFFORTS àà Statelessness issues were incorporated into a Comprehensive Needs Assessment and Framework for Cooperation of the Philippines’ Department of Justice Refugee Processing Unit. àà The Government of the Philippines and UNHCR convened a series of inter-agency round-table discussions on statelessness during which the compatibility of the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions with Philippine law and jurisprudence was analyzed. àà Legal representatives from the Philippine Government were included in two UNHCR expert meetings on doctrinal issues arising from the Statelessness Conventions. àà UNHCR promoted the inclusion of statelessness issues in the remit of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). àà The Philippines deposited its instrument of ratification of the 1954 Statelessness Convention on 22 September 2011 (It signed the Convention in 1955). àà UNHCR continues to collaborate with the Philippine Government to implement the 1954 Convention through the adoption of a statelessness determination procedure, the issuance of a Procedural Standards Manual as well as through conducting surveys to identify stateless populations in the Philippines. àà The Philippines submitted a pledge at the December 2011 Ministerial Meeting to work towards accession to the 1961 Statelessness Convention. The Philippines’ ratifies the 1954 Statelessness Convention Though the Philippines was one of the States that signed the 1954 Statelessness Convention shortly after it was adopted, it still had not ratified the Convention after more than five decades. 2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the Philippines’ historic accession to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. In the context of its ongoing collaboration with the Philippines government, UNHCR’s national office in Manila redoubled its efforts to raise awareness of statelessness in the lead-up to the 2011 commemorations of both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1961 Statelessness Convention, underscoring the fact that the Philippines had already signed the 1954 Statelessness Convention. Moreover, UNHCR and the Philippines’ Ministry of Justice provided an example of a creative campaign to promote accessions to the Statelessness Conventions through its “adopt my sister” campaign which highlighted the parallel protection needs of stateless people and refugees. In 2010, UNHCR and the Department of Justice Refugee Processing Unit (RPU) engaged in a Global Needs Assessment (GNA) to identify solutions to gaps in the Philippines’ protection policy and legal framework as well as capacity-building priorities of the government for 2010-2011. Through this process, addressing statelessness in the Philippines was identified and selected as an integral theme of the plans. Ratification of the 1954 Statelessness Convention was the first concrete outcome of the strategic policy framework developed through the GNA and the direct result of collaboration between the Philippine Government and UNHCR. At the national level, UNHCR and the Department of Justice convened an inter-agency working group that brought together legal experts from both bodies, including the latter’s Refugee Processing Unit. The working group also included high level representatives of the Office of the Solicitor General, Bureau of Immigration, the Commission on Human Rights, the Office of the President and the departments of Foreign Affairs, Labour and Social Welfare and Development. UNHCR and the Department of Justice also co-organized two interagency round-table discussions on statelessness in October 2010 and May 2011, respectively. Analyses of the compatibility of Philippine law and jurisprudence with the 1954 and 1961 Conventions provided a basis for discussion. 3 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS