2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) never have crossed international borders. 40 Thus, in situ stateless persons ‘consider themselves to already be “in their own country”’. 41 A current major challenge is mapping and identifying stateless populations. This is a challenge for a number of different reasons, such as a lack of awareness, a lack of political will, the denial of the existence of stateless populations by states, a lack of reporting by governments or a failure to conduct official or non-official mapping (studies, census or surveys). 42 As of 2019, ‘ten countries that report the largest stateless populations accounted for over 87% of the overall number of stateless counted’. 43 They are located in Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East: Côte d'Ivoire, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Latvia, Syria, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Estonia. 44 In the 40 Understanding Statelessness Contexts in Europe (n 38): Stateless in situ are commonly in a non-migratory situation and remain stateless in their ‘own country’, often since birth. They are long-standing residents (or were residents at the time of state succession) with close personal and family ties to the country and a clear intention to stay. They also do not have such ties to other countries. 41 Geneva Conclusions (n 21) 2; the Human Rights Committee, interpreting International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976) art 12(4) (‘ICCPR’) stated: [t]he scope of ‘his own country’ is broader than the concept ‘country of his nationality’. It is not limited to nationality in a formal sense, that is, nationality acquired at birth or by conferral; it embraces, at the very least, an individual who, because of his or her special ties to or claims in relation to a given country, cannot be considered to be a mere alien. CCPR General Comment No 27: Article 12 (Freedom of Movement), UN Doc CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9 (2 November 1999) [20] (‘General Comment 27’). On interpreting what the concept ‘his own country’ means, the Human Rights Committee has further stated: [‘his own country’] is not limited to nationality in a formal sense, that is, nationality acquired at birth or by conferral; it embraces, at the very least, an individual who, because of his or her special ties to or claims in relation to a given country, cannot be considered to be a mere alien. In this regard, it finds that there are factors other than nationality which may establish close and enduring connections between a person and a country, connections which may be stronger than those of nationality. The words ‘his own country’ invite consideration of such matters as long standing residence, close personal and family ties and intentions to remain, as well as to the absence of such ties elsewhere. Communication No 1959/2010, UN Doc CCPR/C/102/D/1959/2010 (1 September 2011) [8.5]; Guidelines No 3 (n 39) 11 [45]. 42 43 44 See Statelessness in Numbers: 2020 — An Overview and Analysis of Global Statistics (Report, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, August 2020) 3 <https://files.institutesi.org/ISI_statistics_analysis_2020.pdf> (‘Statelessness in Numbers: 2020’), which analysed statelessness population numbers from Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019 (Report, UNHCR, 2019) (‘Global Trends 2019’). Statelessness in Numbers: 2020 (n 42) 3. ibid 3, 8. 70