Examples of big-picture goals paralegal programs worldwide have used: •C  ontribute to preventing and reducing statelessness; enhancing protection of those at risk. • Create conditions for the eradication of statelessness. • Identify the extent of statelessness in the target region. • Participate in bringing laws in line with international instruments. •P  romoting accession to / monitoring implementation of the statelessness conventions. • Secured legal identity for all. • Improve the level of documentation among affected populations. • Universal birth registration. •O  vercoming structural discrimination against Roma people in the ex-USSR space. • Build a national network of community-based paralegals. • Increase public awareness of statelessness and the importance of birth registration. • Build institutional capacity to address and resolve statelessness. CASE STUDY Organizational vision and mission can change over time. At the start, Macedonian Young Lawyers Association’s only mission was to provide legal assistance. Over time, its strategy changed. The project partnered with regional actors and its focus grew. Beside direct legal assistance, the team started to carry out research and advocacy, and concentrated on working with state institutions. For three years MYLA led a governmental database of unregistered persons. • End discrimination in the provision of citizenship rights and documents. Examples of objectives from paralegal programs working on documentation and citizenship rights: SERVICE-DELIVERY • Ensure that legal advice and assistance is available to women, girls, boys, and men. • Increase the quality and quantity of justice services delivered through a strong, identifiable, and repeatedly useable network of legal service and information providers. • Greater development and use of vertical and horizontal networks by legal aid organizations and paralegals. • Resolve statelessness and seek short-term remedies in the interim, such as birth certificates. • Facilitate access to complex administrative procedures for civil registration. • Facilitate registration of stateless refugees with UNHCR. • Resolve clients’ cases through the legal clinic; educate students in this area of law and have them reflect on the political and social situation of clients. • Promote access of undocumented and stateless people to a legal status by strengthening community members’ legal skills and advocacy capacity, and links with expert lawyers, so that they can play the role of community-based paralegals. • Assist in collection of documents and submission of applications and in referrals to pro bono lawyers to address complex cases through the court system. A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y | 51