tion of statelessness globally, launched the #IBelong campaign.4 Its primary goal is to end statelessness by 2024. While we are no closer to ending global statelessness once and for all—there’s simply too many ways in which statelessness arises and the discrimination that underlies each of these paths means that statelessness cannot simply be removed via legal and technical means—positive momentum has been built, especially in the civil society and academic realms. Various regional networks have been created in the past half decade: from the European Network on Statelessness, the Americas Network on Nationality and Statelessness to the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific and the Central Asian Network on Statelessness. Even more human-rights and law-based NGO’s and practices are incorporating the stateless as a population of concern in their work, and the world’s first center dedicated to the study of statelessness became fully operational this year at the University of Melbourne.5 Furthermore, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), which was launched in 2014 and which serves as the primary global convenor of statelessness experts and interested parties, is set to hold the first World Conference on Statelessness and Inclusion in June 20196 at the half-way point of UNCHR’s #IBelong campaign. We thus find ourselves at an opportune time to reflect upon the progress made in addressing statelessness and all of its challenges. We hope that you learn more about statelessness through reading this Symposium and that many of you will join the INOSS community, each acting in your own spheres of research and influence so that the stories of individuals like Sam-on, and others like him, do not go unheard or unaddressed. References Belton. Kristy A. 2017. Statelessness in the Caribbean: The Paradox of Belonging in a Postnational World. University of Pennsylvania Press. Roosevelt, Eleanor. 1948. “The Promise of Human Rights.” Foreign Affairs 26: 470-477. Wongcha-Um, Panu and James Pearson. 2018. “Cave rescue highlights plight of Thailand’s stateless people.” Reuters. July 14. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-accident-cavestateless/cave-rescue-highlights-plight-of-thailands-stateless-people-idUSKBN1K40F6. Please direct inquiries about the Symposium’s Introductory article to Kristy A. Belton (kristy.belton@institutesi.org). 4 For further information on the #IBelong Campaign, please visit: http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. 5 To find out more about the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, housed at the University of Mel- bourne’s Law School, please visit: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/study/graduate-research-degrees/fees-andscholarships/statelessness-phd-scholarship. 6 For more information on the June 2019 conference, please visit: http://www.institutesi.org/forum/conference.php. http://community.apsanet.org/migrationcitizenship/home 11