A/HRC/60/42 basis of legal research and expert input. She warned that stripping individuals – especially dual nationals – of their citizenship under national security pretexts could have severe punitive impacts and urged the international community to consider the implications of such actions. IV. Best practices to address unequal nationality laws and resolve statelessness among impacted populations 21. Monica Sandvik, head of the Statelessness Section at UNHCR, moderated the second panel discussion, which was focused on best practices to address unequal nationality laws and resolve statelessness among affected populations. 22. Usana Berananda, Permanent Representative of Thailand to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, shared the experience of Thailand in addressing statelessness. She began by noting that Thailand was home to the world’s fourth largest stateless population, with over 400,000 stateless persons reported to UNHCR in 2024, most residing in the provinces bordering the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar. She emphasized the country’s sustained commitment to protecting stateless persons and pursuing durable solutions, despite the complexity of the issue. Since 1992, Thailand had granted Thai nationality to over 300,000 stateless individuals. 23. Ms. Berananda stressed that resolving statelessness required a multi-stakeholder, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, including critical legal and procedural reforms. Efforts by Thailand were being made at three levels. Internationally, Thailand engaged actively with key stakeholders, including UNHCR, international organizations and civil society, on the issue. In addition, it had joined the Global Alliance to End Statelessness in 2023. Thailand had also made commitments at the Global Refugee Forum that guided national policy and promoted cross-sector coordination. Nationally, key reforms had included a 2005 strategy to improve the legal status of ethnic minorities and unregistered persons, with expanded access to basic services such as education and healthcare. The Civil Registration Act had been amended, and administrative procedures streamlined, including the devolution of decision-making powers to the provincial and district levels to reduce bureaucratic delays. The Permanent Representative highlighted a major step in October 2023, when the Cabinet had approved a resolution to fast-track permanent residency for more than 300,000 stateless persons and long-term residents, to allow permanent residents to apply for Thai citizenship after five years and to grant Thai citizenship to over 100,000 children born in Thailand to stateless parents. The resolution had also involved accelerating processing times. Locally, collaboration with partners such as UNHCR and with NGOs through initiatives such as the REACH project (reaching women migrant workers and their families in construction camps) had enabled outreach in remote areas, offering legal aid, mobile registration, DNA testing and capacity-building for front-line personnel. 24. While progress was notable, the Permanent Representative acknowledged ongoing challenges, including inconsistent decision-making at the local level and resource constraints in remote operations. She noted that internal regulations were being developed to standardize procedures, and called for continued support from partners to overcome logistical constraints. She concluded by reaffirming the commitment of Thailand to resolving statelessness, promoting the rights of stateless persons, sharing best practices and cooperating internationally to achieve sustainable solutions. 25. Mohamed M. Farid, a senator from Egypt and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights and Social Solidarity, began by outlining the journey of Egypt towards gender equality in its nationality law. Since the 1950s, Egyptian women married to foreign men had been prohibited from passing nationality to their children, unlike Egyptian men married to foreign women. That legal discrimination had been perpetuated by subsequent reforms, which had also specifically affected children born to an Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father, who were excluded from nationality rights. The senator spoke of a turning point in 1981, when Egypt ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which affirmed the right to nationality without discrimination. However, no major legal changes had followed until the early 2000s, when the Constitutional Court of 6 GE.25-10379