March 2020 Update Mobilizing governments and civil society From 2 to 5 March, in Rubavu, Rwanda, UNHCR and the newly established Government Taskforce on Statelessness convened to discuss statelessness eradication and methodologies to identify stateless persons. In line with the pledges made by the Government of Rwanda at the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in October 2019, consensus was reached to draft a National Plan of Action to eradicate statelessness in Rwanda. Once complete, it will serve as a national strategy for the four remaining years of the #IBelong Campaign. In South Africa, the organization Lawyers for Human Rights successfully advocated for the inclusion of statelessness as a central pillar in the National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (NAP). On 28 January, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development held its first national consultative workshop and announced that the resolution of statelessness and participation in the #IBelong Campaign would form part of the implementation roadmap for the NAP. On 26 and 27 February, in Kismayo, Somalia, UNHCR organized a training on international protection for Government officials from Jubaland. Participants were briefed on statelessness issues in the region and the risk of statelessness due to gender discrimination in the nationality law, as well as the pledges the Government of Somalia submitted in the context of the High-Level Segment on Statelessness. The training helped to raise awareness and build support for the implementation of Somalia’s pledge to accede to the two UN Statelessness Conventions. On 13 February, the Constitutional Court of South Africa heard a case involving five persons at risk of statelessness who were retroactively deprived of their nationality following amendments to the Citizenship Act in 2013. The Government holds the view that based on the 2013 amendments, persons born before 2013 to South African parents outside the country are no longer to be regarded as South African nationals. The Constitutional Court must now decide whether it will uphold the judgment of the High Court, which decided the applicants are entitled 1