7 Analysis from the East-West Center Such action requires political will, long-term strategies, and the mobilization of a broader coalition of actors. Regional fora could provide one avenue for cross-border learning and collaboration on legal identity and statelessness. The ASEAN human rights bodies, especially the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, have stated that regional cooperation and action is needed to tackle the problem.37 Regional knowledge exchange on CRVS is already well-advanced. Moreover, in the context of its campaign to end statelessness, the UNHCR has become a partner for technical assistance to govern- ments and NGOs in the region. Nongovernmental actors have also moved closer together, including by forming the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific in 2015.38 The attention of these actors will now have to focus on addressing the more intractable and politically sensitive situations that cannot be resolved through technical assistance and law reform alone. In a region where state sovereignty frequently prevails over international frameworks, collective efforts need to be tailored to specific country contexts and engage states’ underlying concerns and sensitivities with respect to the social inclusion of particular individuals and communities. This paper builds on a forthcoming book chapter, published jointly with Rodziana Mohamed Razali. The author thanks Elif Sekercioglu for research assistance and Bongkot Napaumporn for helpful feedback. This work was supported by a University of Melbourne Early Career Researcher grant. Notes Statistics from UNHCR (2020), Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019, Copenhagen. 1 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, The World’s Stateless 2020: Deprivation of Nationality (March 2020). 2 UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019, pp. 72-75. 3 Nyi Nyi Kyaw (2017), “Unpacking the Presumed Statelessness of the Rohingyas,” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 15, no. 3: 269-286. 11 Lyma Nguyen and Christoph Sperfeldt (2012), A Boat Without Anchors: A Report on the Legal Status of Ethnic Vietnamese Minority Populations in Cambodia, Phnom Penh: Jesuit Refugee Service. 12 UNHCR (Jul. 14 2020), “Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness,” https://www. refworld.org/docid/5f0d7b934.html. 13 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954, article 1(1). 4 See more at https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/ (accessed 4 August 2020). 5 “UN Legal Identity Agenda,” accessed 15 October 2020, https:// unstats.un.org/legal-identity-agenda/ 6 Leo Suryadinata (2014), The Making of Southeast Asian Nations: State, Ethnicity, Indigenism and Citizenship, Singapore: World Scientific. 7 Michelle Ann Miller, ed. (2013), Ethnic and Racial Minorities in Asia: Inclusion or Exclusion? London: Routledge. 8 There is some acceptance of dual nationality in Indonesia (for children reaching the age of 18), Vietnam (for “Overseas Vietnamese”), Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand. See Olivier Vonk (2017), Comparative Report: Citizenship in Asia, Comparative Reports 2017/04, GLOBALCIT. 9 UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues - Statelessness: A Minority Issue,” Jul. 20 2018, A/73/205, 6 [21]. 10 Carla Abouzahr, Mia Harbitz, Fu Haishan and Raj Gautam Mitra (2014), “Towards a Research Agenda for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in the Asia-Pacific Region,” Asia-Pacific Population Journal 29, no. 1: 99-100. 14 UNICEF (2015), Unequal at Birth: Disparities in Birth Registration in East Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok: UNICEF), 5, https://www.unicef.org/eap/reports/unequal-birth. 15 Susan Kneebone (2010), “The Governance Of Labor Migration In Southeast Asia,” Global Governance 16, no. 3: 383-396. 16 Conny Rijken, Laura Van Waas, Martin Gramatikov and Deirdre Brennan (2015), The Nexus Between Statelessness and Human Trafficking in Thailand, Oisterwijk: Wolf Legal Publishers. 17 Janepicha Isarakul-Cheva (2019), “’Diagnosing’ Statelessness and Everyday State Illegibility in Northern Thailand,” Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1, no. 2: 214-238. 18