Why citizenship and access to citizenship must be considered by the 2019 High Level Political Forum As States prepare for the High Level Political Forum in July 2019, it is important that they consider how access to citizenship may be affecting progress toward achieving the goals and targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Access to citizenship has a fundamental impact on the ability of States and the international community to realise the commitments in the six goals under consideration this year, but also affects the possibility for progress across the Agenda. People currently without access to citizenship need to be able to obtain a quality education and proof of their educational achievements (SDG 4). Barriers to regular labour markets need to be removed, reducing the risk of trafficking and exploitation (SDG 8). Ensuring access to citizenship and addressing any related, multi-dimensional discrimination will be crucial to making societies fairer and more equal (SDG 10). In countries most at risk of the effects of climate change, stateless persons need to be supported in efforts to build resilience, and serious examination is needed of what citizenship will mean for people living in territories at risk of becoming uninhabitable (SDG 13). Removing all barriers to free birth registration immediately after birth and programmes to provide 'legal identity' to adults that resolve the status of stateless people and those with undetermined citizenship can help to ensure that everyone can participate in sustainable development efforts (SDG 16). At the same time, seeking the perspectives of people without any citizenship, who may currently be unable to participate in the political system where they live can support sustainable development planning to be truly inclusive (SDG 16). Access to citizenship is sometimes framed as an internal matter for States but ensuring both that everyone has rights even if they have no citizenship, and that everyone has access to a citizenship requires bilateral and multilateral cooperation (SDG 17). It was agreed that the Sustainable Development Agenda should ‘leave no one behind’. In today’s world, citizenship is often required for participation in, contribution to and benefit from economic and social development. Often left out of censuses and population measures, and reporting on the development indicators, it is easy to overlook the needs of stateless people. This High Level Political Forum provides an opportunity for reflection on what it would really mean for sustainable development to leave no one behind. European Network on Statelessness 10 of 11 May 2019