In July, Georgia adopted a National Action Plan on Statelessness. The document covers all the pledges made by the Government at the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness and foresees, among other objectives, the introduction of facilitated naturalization for stateless persons and free legal aid for statelessness status applicants. On 7 September, in Pristina, Kosovo (S/ RES/1244(1999)), UNHCR, the legal NGO Civil Rights Programme Kosovo and the national Ombudsperson convened the meeting “Leave no one behind – the importance of establishing legal identity and access to justice” which gathered representatives from different line ministries and civil society organizations. The meeting was an opportunity for relevant authorities to discuss issues related to in-situ statelessness in the country, including lack of birth registration among marginalized groups. As an outcome of the meeting, the Civil Registration Agency committed to creating a mechanism to improve coordination between line ministries to address statelessness. On 23 September, the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro adopted the 2021-2025 Strategy on Migration and Reintegration of Returnees in Montenegro and an accompanying 20212022 Action Plan. The strategy foresees, among other issues, legislative changes to improve the statelessness determination procedure, development of guidance on birth registration for case workers and judges, and the creation of a referral mechanism among line State institutions for immediate birth registration of children born in Montenegro. On 29 July, in South Africa, the NGOs Lawyers for Human Rights and Jesuit Refugee Services launched a petition in support of their joint advocacy campaign titled “This is Home”. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness on the issues faced by migrant children in securing documentation and citizenship in South Africa. The petition and signatures will be delivered to the Portfolio Committee of the Parliament. On 19 August, in the Philippines, UNHCR and UNICEF convened a meeting with the local government of Bongao to develop a work plan to improve birth registration. The agreed work plan includes birth registration of 200 members of the Sama Bajau – a maritime nomadic ethnic minority in Barangay, support towards the digitization of civil registration and activities to raise awareness on the importance of birth registration. The work plan forms part of UNHCR and UNICEF’s joint strategy under the umbrella of the Coalition on Every Child’s Right to a Nationality. On 6 July, in Serbia, UNHCR organized a press briefing to present the results of a statelessness survey entitled “Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia – Overview of the Current Situation and the Way Forward“. The survey was commissioned to collect data on the situation of undocumented Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian living in informal settlements in Serbia and was conducted from October to November 2020. UNHCR also presented the outcomes of the collaboration with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia to address risks of statelessness. The Minister of Public Administration and Local Governments, Ms. Marija Obradović, noted that Serbia may be able to completely eradicate statelessness by 2024, given the progress that has been made so far. The national Ombudsperson, Mr. Zoran Pasalic, highlighted the importance of working directly with the Roma community and that his office will continue to undertake field visits to enable persons at risk of statelessness to obtain civil registry documents as efficiently as possible. In July, in Zambia, under the banner of the UNHCRUNICEF Coalition on Every Child’s Right to a Nationality, the two UN Agencies held a series of meetings to develop a new two-year joint strategy to end childhood statelessness in Zambia. As part of the strategy, the two organizations will join forces to advocate for the inclusion of safeguards in the nationality law to prevent childhood statelessness and to strengthen birth registration in the country. On 18 August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica established the Institutional Liaison Commission on Statelessness, by Executive Decree No. 42794-RE, to facilitate coordination between different government institutions in efforts to address statelessness. 4