Mobilizing governments and civil society On 21 January, in the Philippines, UNHCR and UNICEF co-facilitated a meeting between the Zamboanga City Civil Registrar’s Office, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Zamboanga Sub Office and community volunteers to assess the 2021 Birth Registration Project in Zamboanga. The meeting also discussed expansion of the initiative in 2022. On 3 February, in Asia-Pacific, UNHCR organized a webinar on “Preventing Statelessness among Foundlings / Children of Unknown Parents”. In the key-note presentation Mai Kaneko-Iwase, a UNHCR Staff Member in Japan, presented her recently published book “Nationality of Foundlings”, which focuses on Article 2 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and its implementation. Country experiences on the topic were presented, including by the Government of the Philippines and UNHCR Malaysia. From 16 to 22 February, the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the University of Melbourne, organized the 2022 Statelessness Intensive Course. Attended by 40 participants from governments, UN Agencies, civil society and academia, the course provided participants with skills and practical tools to understand and address the problem of statelessness. On 28 February, the Government of Cambodia and its Representative to the ASEAN Commission on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Women and Children organized a hybrid national workshop on the report “Launching of Legal Identity of All Women and Children in ASEAN: A Regional Synthesis” translated in Khmer. The translation was supported by UNHCR, and 2,000 copies have been disseminated to civil registrar officials nationwide to raise awareness on the importance of civil and birth registration for the prevention of statelessness, especially for women and children. In Pakistan, the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives convened the final Core Working Group meeting for endorsing the report on a pilot project on CRVS systems, following the Bali Process. Assessments were done in the Islamabad Capital Territory, Karachi and Peshawar using the Bali Process Civil Registration Assessment Toolkit. These assessments aim to identify existing gaps in access to registration systems for vulnerable populations, including refugees, asylum seekers and stateless person. The final report includes concrete recommendations on universal birth registration, regardless of legal status. In February, in Kyrgyzstan, the National Statistics Committee with support from UNHCR, conducted a series of Training of Trainers workshops for the coordinators of the 2022 population and housing census, which is planned for April and May 2022. The three-day workshops focused on building the capacity of census staff to ensure quality census data including on the size and profile of stateless populations. UNHCR experts contributed with presentations on nationality and statelessness matters. The training workshops were attended by a total of 506 census coordinators from 54 districts in Kyrgyzstan In the Asia-Pacific region, UNHCR and UN Women commemorated International Women’s Day by co-hosting an expert roundtable on gender equality in nationality matters and the prevention of statelessness. The event promoted a deeper regional understanding of gender discrimination as a key cause of statelessness and called on participants to step up activities to end gender discrimination in nationality matters. Experts from the Malaysian Parliament, academia, and civil society shared their ideas on the issue and women affected by gender discrimination and statelessness reflected on their personal experiences. The roundtable was attended by almost 200 participants. On March 14, in Kazakhstan, UNHCR held a briefing on statelessness for Members of Parliament and representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, and Justice. The briefing provided an overview of the statelessness situation and eradication efforts, accessions to the UN Statelessness Conventions, and highlighted the role of members of parliament in combatting statelessness. UNHCR presented the report “Statelessness in Kazakhstan: Analysis of National Legislation” which provides an analysis on the compliance of national legislation with UNHCR > The Campaign to End Statelessness | January – March 2022 Update 2