Existing Statelessness determination procedure This has led a number of governments to improve the identification and protection of stateless persons. For instance, the United Kingdom established a procedure in April 2013 following research and advocacy conducted by UNHCR and civil society organizations, in particular, Asylum Aid (now known as Consonant). Research by UNHCR in the Netherlands in 2011 drew attention to issues relating to the implementation of the 1954 Convention and the situation of more than 80,000 individuals in the country who were registered as being of undetermined nationality. It became clear that an SDP would help to clarify the number of stateless persons within this group. UNHCR’s report helped to galvanize academia and civil society, including the universities of Tilburg, Amsterdam, Leiden and Maastricht as well as the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, to focus on the issue in the Netherlands. In 2013, the Advisory Committee on Migration Affairs submitted its report and recommendations on statelessness11 to the Dutch Government, which includes a recommendation to establish an SDP. A decision of the Council of State in May 2014 also highlighted the absence of an SDP. As a consequence of these developments, in 2014 the State Secretary of Security and Justice agreed to examine how to establish an SDP in the Netherlands. Following the publication of a UNHCR mapping study in 2012 on statelessness in Belgium12, which highlighted gaps in the existing mechanisms, the Government of Belgium reiterated its commitment to improve the protection of stateless persons in principle. In Italy, research and advocacy by UNHCR, the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration - ASGI, Comunita’ di Sant’Egidio, the Italian Council for Refugees and other NGOs have drawn attention to statelessness, particularly among the Roma population, and deficiencies in the existing judicial and administrative SDPs. In 2016, UNHCR facilitated the creation of a network of specialized NGOs and experts on statelessness named Tavolo Apolidia, which is actively engaged in promoting enhanced awareness and advocating for the protection of stateless people in Italy.13 In the Americas, there has been regional support for the establishment of SDPs since the launch of the #IBelong Campaign and the Global Action Plan in 2014. In December 2014, twenty-eight countries and three territories of Latin America and the 11 12 13 ACVZ, Geen land te bekennen, December 2013, summary in English on page 108, available at: http://goo.gl/d5KX6W UNHCR, Mapping Statelessness in Belgium, October 2012, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5100f4b22.htm The website of Tavolo Apolidia is available at: www.tavoloapolidia.org U N H C R > G P P AC T I O N 6 : E S TA B L I S H I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S D E T E R M I N AT I O N P R O C E D U R E S 7