matters concerning stateless persons have been integrated into the work of certain EU agencies such as the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) in the context of asylum and migration.32 2.3 UNHCR’s Mandate on Statelessness The UN General Assembly has conferred on UNHCR a global mandate to provide protection to stateless persons worldwide and to engage in prevention and reduction of statelessness. The General Assembly has specifically requested UNHCR “to provide technical and advisory services pertaining to the preparation and implementation of nationality legislation to interested States”.33 It has also entrusted UNHCR with the specific role foreseen in Article 11 of the 1961 Convention. UNHCR’s supervisory responsibility is exercised in part by the issuance of interpretative guidelines on the meaning of provisions and terms contained in international instruments concerning statelessness, in particular the 1954 and the 1961 Statelessness Conventions. Such guidelines are included, among others, in the UNHCR Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons (UNHCR Handbook).6 The Handbook is intended to guide government officials, the judiciary, and legal practitioners as well as UNHCR staff and others involved in addressing statelessness.34 It addresses the definition of a stateless person, procedures to determine who is stateless, and the legal status of stateless persons at the national level. With respect to stateless refugees, UNHCR has responsibility for refugees who are stateless pursuant to Article 6A(II) of the Statue of UNHCR and Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Although not all stateless persons are refugees, a stateless person can be a refugee and, if so, the protection afforded to refugees by the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol apply to such stateless persons. In 2014 UNHCR launched the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness with the aim of ending statelessness within 10 years.35 The Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014-2024 (Global Action Plan) was published in 2014 in conjunction with the #IBelong Campaign.36 It was developed in consultation with states, civil society, and international organisations and sets out a guiding framework made up of 10 Actions to be taken by states to reduce and prevent statelessness. UNHCR has produced Good Practice Papers, in relation to 9 of the 10 Actions proposed in UNHCR’s Global Action Plan. As the causes, profile and magnitude of statelessness vary, not all actions are relevant or necessary in all states. The action points relevant to a particular state will depend on the context there. Since 2012, UNHCR has also issued an annual background note on gender equality in legal provisions in national laws.37 The background note provides updates on law reforms and an overview of nationality laws in various states. 32 On 19 January 2022 EASO was replaced by the EUAA with an enhanced mandate on asylum and reception practices. See also EASO, Asylum Report 2021, Section 4.13 Statelessness in the asylum context, available at: https://www.easo.europa.eu/asylum-report 33 UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/50/152, para. 15. 34 Other relevant publications include UNHCR, Nationality and Statelessness: Handbook for Parliamentarians N° 22, July 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/53d0a0974.html and UNHCR, Good practices in nationality laws for the prevention and reduction of statelessness, November 2018, Handbook for Parliamentarians N° 29, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5be41d524.html 35 For further information see https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/ 36 UNHCR, Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, 4 November 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/545b47d64.html 37 UNHCR, Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2021, 5 March 2021, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/604257d34.html UNHCR, UNHCR and UNICEF: Background Note on Sex Discrimination in Birth Registration, 6 July 2021, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/60e2d0554.html UNHCR, Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2022, 4 March 2022, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/6221ec1a4.html UNHCR 13