Interview with Gillian Triggs, Assistant High Commissioner – Protection Gillian Triggs, Assistant High Commissioner – Protection © UNHCR As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, we asked UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, why the 1961 Convention is still relevant today. Why is it so important for States to accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness? the country in which they were born if they would otherwise be left stateless. The Convention also generally prevents people from being deprived of their nationality where doing so would leave them stateless. Complying with this rule would help States to avoid potential situations of mass statelessness, which we unfortunately continue to see occurring in certain parts of the world today. Fortunately given the high rate of accessions to the 1961 Convention (we’ve had 15 since the #IBelong Campaign was launched in 2014), we can say as we approach the 60th anniversary that States clearly see and value its continued relevance. While the grant of nationality is of course a classically sovereign prerogative of the nation State and States have discretion to provide nationality on different grounds, the 1961 Convention provides a number of safeguards to prevent individuals from falling through the cracks. The 1961 Convention was negotiated at a time when the international community was very aware of circumstances linked to conflict, displacement, and shifting borders that could lead to statelessness. But the safeguards of the Convention remain relevant to this day. Without these, a child may end up stateless in case the country in which he or she was born does not grant nationality based on birth on the territory and the law of the State of the parents’ nationality does not permit them to confer their nationality by descent. In this context, the 1961 Convention provides a safeguard so that children acquire the nationality of One of the four pillars of UNHCR’s work on statelessness is prevention. How has the #IBelong Campaign and the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness by 2024 helped accelerate prevention efforts? Well the prevention aspect of UNHCR’s statelessness mandate is unique and distinguishes it from its 3