5 Analysis from the East-West Center Community-based assistance programs can help to overcome fears among affected populations about government registration schemes obligations under the 1954 Convention.26 An example of governmental and nongovernmental collaboration has come from Malaysia. This concerned the identification and registration of undocumented stateless Indians of Tamil descent, who had migrated to Malaysia during British colonial times. Efforts at documenting this population had been carried out by a local NGO, the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (DHRRA), with support from UNHCR and the Malaysian government. Since 2014, DHRRA’s paralegal program documented the cases of at least 12,350 individuals and assisted with registration and nationality applications.27 The case shows how community-based assistance programs can help to overcome fears among affected populations about certain government registration schemes. Expanding civil registration. A specific form of registration is civil registration, which records vital events in an individual’s life, including birth and death. Birth registration can play an important role in preventing or reducing statelessness and other legal identity problems, as acknowledged through the incorporation of a birth registration indicator for measuring the implementation of the SDG target 16.9. Recognizing the importance of civil registration, in 2014 states in the region proclaimed the Asia Pacific Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Decade with the goal of improving civil registration systems by 2024, including achieving universal birth registration.28 Further initiatives emerged from the ongoing Bali Process on People Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, which designed a civil registration assessment toolkit.29 These initiatives have invigorated CRVS efforts in Southeast Asia, and most states in the region are now aiming for universal birth registration. After reforming its civil registration law and providing a more flexible registration system, Thailand now has the highest birth registration rate in the region. Vietnam and the Philippines follow closely by recording similarly high levels of birth registration. Yet, replicating this success in other states in the region has been challenging, especially in those with high income disparities, such as Indonesia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.30 Even in countries with high registration rates, persistent pockets of low registration exist, mostly affecting marginalized, hard-to-reach or stateless populations. Discrimination, inequalities, hidden costs, linguistic and logistical barriers, as well as difficulties with late birth registration, all pose challenges for achieving universal birth registration. Reforming laws and improving legal protections. Tackling deficient or discriminatory laws through legislative reforms can improve protections for those affected by statelessness or a lack of proof of legal identity. For instance, a number of Southeast Asian states have amended their nationality laws. Indonesia’s post-Suharto nationality law reform, in 2006, removed a differentiation between “natives” and “non-natives” in the law and thereby reduced barriers faced by long-term resident minorities of Chinese and Indian descent in confirming their nationality. This law reform also addressed the situation of Indonesian migrants living overseas, who would no longer lose their citizenship if that would render them stateless. In 2008, Vietnam instituted legal reforms in response to the problems faced by women marrying foreign nationals. The Vietnamese government enabled restoration of Vietnamese nationality to affected women and their children, and also enacted a condition requiring renunciation of citizenship to be subjected to confirmation that the applicant had obtained a new nationality.31 While several countries in the region have reformed their nationality laws to bring them closer to compliance with obligations under CEDAW, gender-discriminatory nationality laws remain a problem in some states, especially Brunei and Malaysia. Moreover, many children still struggle to acquire a nationality due to the jus sanguinis nationality laws dominant in the region, especially when they are born to unknown or stateless parents. A number of states have enacted laws that protect foundlings against statelessness, including Lao PDR, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Finally, regional human rights instruments, such the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons (ACTIP), have provided entry points for developing protection standards for some affected persons.32