© UNHCR / G.M.B Akash Women selling turnips in a market in Dhaka, Bangladesh. These women were members of a group of Urdu speakers who were stateless for decades until a 2007 landmark court decision that reconfirmed their Bangladeshi citizenship. fruits of this endeavor, a number of States took action, made commitments to take action, or both, to enhance the protection of stateless individuals. The United States made two pledges at the UNHCR December 2011 Ministerial Meeting that relate specifically to the issues addressed in this report—to review administrative measures that can be taken to increase the protections accorded to stateless individuals in the U.S. and to encourage and support efforts to enact legislation providing a means of attaining lawful permanent residence and ultimately U.S. citizenship to eligible stateless individuals.14 This report, the first presentation of the circumstances and concerns of stateless individuals in the United States, is intended to further those efforts and provides clear recommendations for fulfilling the pledges made by the U.S. Government. tive, a non-governmental organization committed to combating statelessness globally, collaborated on this report in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The report is based on various sources of data, including UNHCR’s experience assisting stateless individuals in the U.S., interviews conducted with stateless individuals, surveys of 45 organizations in 19 U.S. States that provide legal services to immigrant communities, an examination of government statistics, and a review of federal case law. Statelessness is “a condition deplored in the international community of democracies.” Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 102 (1958).15 UNHCR and the Open Society Justice Initia- Solutions for the Stateless in the U.S. 7