Good practices in access to universal birth registration for the prevention of childhood statelessness The Government started introducing measures to address statelessness in 2002, after the national Population Census identified 17,652 stateless people. By 2023, most cases had been resolved. However, there are still outstanding cases among minority groups, mainly the Roma community. For 2024, the available data indicated 159 recorded stateless people and people with undetermined nationality in North Macedonia.155 Birth registration to help prevent statelessness In 2014, with the launch of UNHCR’s ten year #IBelong Campaign, North Macedonia pledged to end statelessness by the end of 2024. UNHCR assisted the Government to form a coalition of stakeholders and develop a formal roadmap for ending statelessness in North Macedonia within the specified timeframe. The Government has undertaken significant efforts in collaboration with international organizations to facilitate birth registration among marginalized groups. In 2018 and 2019, the Government led a public call to identify people without identity documentation. In 2020, a new Law on People that are not Registered in the Birth Register was implemented, which provided a special registration procedure for people identified in the 2018 project and children born subsequently who could not obtain a birth certificate.156 In 2021, following civil society advocacy and litigation, the Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Citizenship.157 For the first time, the Law on Citizenship addressed stateless people as part of the regular civil registration and citizenship system. Unlike the former law, it avoided creating parallel systems that limited access to certain rights and services. By providing a systemic solution and ensuring equal treatment for all, this marked a paradigm shift. The amendments aimed to facilitate, by the end of 2023, birth registration for approximately 900 people identified through the 2018 Government-led public call who still lacked documentation (relating to the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia). Awareness-raising campaigns were also initiated to encourage unregistered people to seek legal advice and apply for birth registration and nationality.158 155 UNHCR’s Refugee Data Finder. 156 Law on People that are not registered in the Birth Register, adopted on 16 February 2020, Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia, No. 42/20, 305/20 and 178/21, [in Macedonian]. 157 Law on Citizenship, Republic of North Macedonia, Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, No. 67/92, 8/04, 98/08, 158/11 and 55/16 and Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia No. 174/21 and 67/22, as amended 30 July 2021. 158 UNHCR reports progress on tackling statelessness, UNHCR, 4 November 2023; see also Submission to inform the European Commission 2024 Enlargement Package: Progress towards addressing statelessness in enlargement countries, ENS, pp. 10-11. 60