A stateless person is someone who, under national laws, does not enjoy citizenship – the legal bond between a government and an individual – in any country. Without citizenship, stateless people have no legal protection and no right to vote, and they often lack access to education, employment, health care, registration of birth, marriage or death, and property rights. Stateless people may also encounter travel restrictions, social exclusion, and heightened vulnerability to sexual and physical violence, exploitation, trafficking in persons, forcible displacement, and other abuses. Statelessness is a priority issue of concern to PRM because it is fundamentally an issue of protection, because it intersects with the needs of other populations of concern to PRM (especially refugees and vulnerable migrants), and because it is the mandate of UNHCR, one of PRM’s primary partners. Working to address statelessness supports all three of PRM’s Functional Bureau Strategy Goals: (1) Save lives, ease suffering, and promote human dignity through efficient and effective humanitarian assistance; (2) Promote and provide durable and interim solutions for populations of concern through U.S. assistance and collaboration with the international community; and (3) Advocate for the protection of vulnerable populations and exert leadership in the international community. Key efforts to prevent and reduce statelessness include: • Creating awareness of statelessness and identifying stateless populations. • Advocating for adoption of the standards and safeguards set out in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which are the key standards with respect to the prevention of statelessness. • Advocating for the elimination of all forms of discrimination, including gender discrimination, from nationality laws. • Universal birth registration and other forms of civil documentation. • Increasing access to naturalization or citizenship by: • Eliminating discrimination in nationality laws; and, • Building administrative capacity for civil registry and documentation. As of the end of 2018, the UNHCR counted nearly 3.9 million stateless persons worldwide, but estimated that the actual number of stateless persons worldwide may be as high as 10 million. UNHCR’s Global Action Plan to End Statelessness includes actions to resolve existing situations of statelessness; prevent new cases of statelessness from emerging; and better identify and protect stateless persons. The overall intent of the action plan is to bring an end to statelessness within 10 years by resolving existing situations and preventing the emergence of new cases of statelessness. To assist countries in achieving the goals of the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, UNHCR and partners: 1. Identify factors which may contribute to new cases of statelessness or which prevent resolution of existing situations. 2. Develop and implement National Action Plans to undertake relevant Actions. 3. Convene country-level roundtable discussions with governments, civil society, other UN Agencies and stakeholders, and undertake participatory assessments with stateless communities to inform the development of National Action Plans. 4. Provide technical advice and, where necessary, resources to support governments and stateless populations. 5. Promote the exchange of good practices in resolving statelessness. 6. Engage with the justice sector and the legal community for a strategic use of judicial processes. 7. Undertake sustained global awareness-raising and advocacy on statelessness, ensuring that the plight of stateless people is understood, and their voices are heard; and 8. Report on implementation of Actions every two years. 62