The Campaign to End Statelessness July – September 2021 Update #IBelong Join us in our Campaign to End Statelessness Mobilizing governments and civil society The year 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961 Convention) and UNHCR and partners organized several events to commemorate it. Finally, the Minister of Justice of Togo, Mr. Pius Agbetomey, spoke about Togo’s recent accession to the Convention and a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Congo, Ms. Cyre Deloria Ongoundou Awandza, announced that the Government will soon deposit its instruments of accession to the UN Statelessness Conventions. On 17 September, UNHCR and the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (UNOLA) organized a virtual Treaty Event to acknowledge States that have recently acceded to the 1961 Convention and to encourage States yet to become party to also take this step. UNHCR’s Assistant High-Commissioner for Protection, Ms. Gillian Triggs, opened the event and congratulated Iceland and Togo for recently acceding to the Convention. The Head of the Treaty Section at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Mr. David Nanopoulos, provided States with practical information on his office’s role as treaty depository. An intervention by the Director of the Division of Programmes of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Ms. Kareen Jabre, emphasized the important role of parliamentarians in the domestic process leading up to accession to international treaties. On 16 September, UNHCR and the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness convened a virtual event entitled “Sixty years on – The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness”. Convention’s history, evolution and continuing relevance. The event was moderated by the Founder and Co-Director of the Institute of Statelessness and Inclusion, Ms. Laura van Waas, and included interventions from representatives of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNHCR, the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and the Refugee Advice and Casework Service who discussed the Convention’s history, evolution and continuing relevance. The event can be watched here. 1