reduction of statelessness and, on the other hand, the protection of human rights of stateless persons. There was broad agreement on the suggestion that all stakeholders advocate a common strategy following a two-tiered approach where a systemic solution to statelessness should be followed and the promotion and protection of the human rights of stateless persons should be strengthened. This latter effort would include the promotion of amendments to current legislation and administrative practices as a means to ensure the enjoyment of human rights. There was also emphasis that in protracted cases of statelessness, states should enable those individuals or groups to improve the protection of their human rights in accordance with their international human rights obligations. • National and regional civil society initiatives should be supported and further information-sharing encouraged. A number of planned and ongoing civil society initiatives for research and advocacy at both national and regional level were discussed and there was a call for increased efforts to share information on activities and outcomes, as well as specifically on methodologies. • Parliamentarians should be recognised as key stakeholders and encouraged to increase their engagement in the issue of statelessness. It was proposed that UNHCR's annual training event with members of the Transitional Arab Parliament and the League of Arab States would focus on statelessness, thereby presenting an important opportunity to raise the issue with parliamentarians. • Demystifying and depoliticising statelessness should be a priority in the design of research, advocacy and awareness-raising activities. Dispelling the perception of statelessness as a complex and politically sensitive issue can be achieved through the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders which approach statelessness from within their specific mandates and spheres of interest (e.g. children’s rights, access to justice, gender equality). Experiences and best practices from states outside the region can also be raised to show that other countries are struggling with the same questions, thereby extracting these issues from their immediate national / regional political context. A focus on positive developments within the MENA region will further validate encouraging global trends and show stakeholders what steps can be taken. Participants also suggested that more could be done to “give statelessness a face” by recounting personal histories and the difficulties faced by stateless persons as part of public information or advocacy campaigns – a technique that was successfully employed to engage the media, for instance, in the regional campaign to promote gender equality in nationality laws. 8