HIGHLIGHTING POSITIVE PRACTICES IN THE PROTECTION OF NON-NATIONALS The above overviews both provide essential context and highlight a degree of evolution in each host country. The following sections will identify specific positive developments and seek to understand how policies and practices have come to change in the region. Each section is organized by practice type, based on whether it is a legislative or judicial practice, a policy or administrative action, or stems from a regional cooperation framework or from civil society or community-led initiatives. Not every section will include each country; only specific positive practices will be highlighted. A brief discussion of the limitations of each practice in its current implementation follows each section. LEGAL IDENTITY, STATUS AND DOCUMENTATION Certain populations—including refugees, migrants, and nomadic and border populations—suffer increased risk of statelessness because their situations make it difficult for them to register births or to acquire related civil registration documents. While procedures may vary between countries, in general, birth registration involves an official entry into a state’s civil registry as well as the issuance of a birth certificate. A lack of birth registration does not on its own mean a person is at risk of being stateless; nor does the existence of a birth certificate suffice to confer nationality. However, a birth certificate is an important tool in preventing statelessness because it helps establish a child’s legal identity, and it is often a prerequisite to obtaining documentation that proves nationality. The importance of legal identity to an individual’s life cannot be overstated. Refugees face a variety of challenges concerning their legal identity, particularly in host states lacking formal frameworks to establish a distinct legal status for refugees or procedures to identify them. While some of the challenges regarding legal identity are unique to foreign nationals seeking protection outside of their country of origin, many are shared by stateless individuals and other vulnerable nationals who are not able to prove their identity or ensure their recognition as citizens under the law. This section will examine ways in which individuals lacking a legal identity and/or facing precarious legal status have been able to secure recognition by states, or in some cases navigate this precariousness and mitigate the challenges presented by it. 15 UND OING PRECARIT Y: ELE VATING P OSITIVE PR ACTICES FOR REFU GEE PROTECTION IN SO U TH AND SO U THE AST ASIA