A third approach to the reduction of statelessness that can be identified in the MENA region is the adoption of legal reform to close gaps that may create statelessness, with retroactive effect. Recent examples of this practice can be found in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Iraq. In these countries, the nationality law has been reformed to allow women to transmit their citizenship to their children and provision has been made for the retroactive application of the amendment. A fourth reduction strategy is promoting increased social, economic or legal integration – for instance by conferring a residence status or improved access to certain facilities to stateless persons. While such measures clearly stop short of conferring citizenship, they do take a step towards the increased inclusion of a stateless population and may help to build a foundation for acquisition of nationality in the future. Each state’s nationality law may also provide avenues for the individual resolution of statelessness, in particular through naturalisation procedures. The prospects for naturalisation vary greatly from one MENA state to another, with some countries maintaining highly restrictive policies. The eligibility criteria that must be met before a person can submit an application may be discriminatory or include very stringent requirements such as a lengthy period of residence which can be especially difficult for stateless persons to meet. Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Syria and Jordan provide more amenable conditions for naturalisation in this regard – requiring periods of 4 or 5 years residence. Naturalisation criteria are not the only measure of access to citizenship. There may be additional hurdles to overcome such as a pre-set maximum quota of naturalisations for a given period or the conferral of broad discretion to decision-making authorities in deciding applications. With a wider margin of discretion, the propensity for arbitrary refusal of an application increases and the availability of a review procedure gains importance. It is therefore encouraging to see nationality laws refer jurisdiction to an administrative or judicial body to oversee the correct interpretation and implementation of provisions concerning citizenship. The new Iraqi nationality law, for instance, provides the administrative courts the authority to review decisions on the application of the law and introduces the possibility of appeal before the Federal Court. Such factors must also be weighed in to an assessment of the prospects for reduction of statelessness through naturalisation. Statelessness as a concern for individuals and states Statelessness can have a detrimental impact on individuals, communities, states and even inter-state relations. An understanding of the effects of statelessness can help to motivate a response and give content to that response. Taking measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness, as well as to protect stateless persons, is not only vital to ensure the individual enjoyment of rights but also reflects MENA states’ existing international obligations and national constitutions. Thus, at a time when several MENA countries have taken steps to improve the situation of stateless persons, close gaps in the law that may lead to statelessness and even provide for the acquisition of nationality by stateless persons – efforts which have been met with praise and support from the international community – states that choose to follow this lead will be demonstrating their own dedication to key international and 27