MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Raison d’être of the report: Why to do a mapping of persons at risk of statelessness in Albania? UNHCR led a process of consultation with all relevant actors to agree on a Global Action Plan to End Statelessness. It was drafted in consultation with States, civil society and international organizations and aims at eradicating the problem by 2024. In order to do this, the scale of the problem, its location and its causes all have to be known. Notably, Action 10 which is to “Improve quantitative and qualitative data on stateless populations” encourages the exercise of mapping statelessness: “Statistics and information on the situation of stateless populations can be gathered using a range of methods, including analyses of civil registration data, population censuses, targeted surveys and studies”.2 The objective is to establish a qualitative analysis of the risks of statelessness, based on available data on stateless populations collected by public institutions and civil society actors, and come up with concrete, practical and efficient recommendations for the given country. Within Europe, the breakup of States is responsible for the creation of a significant stateless problem. From 1991, the disintegration of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia and the ensuing conflicts, left tens of thousands at risk of statelessness, that and the fact that the conflicts had led to many records being destroyed, only exacerbated the problem. Indeed, across the region, no accurate figure for the number of stateless people exists and it is for precisely this reason that the mapping exercise has been carried out in each of the countries of South Eastern Europe. In October 2011, officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo3, Montenegro and Serbia, gathered for a Regional Conference on the Provision of Civil Documentation and Registration in South-Eastern Europe. They adopted the Zagreb Declaration, whereby they agreed, inter alia, to remove all obstacles to documentation and registration, keeping in mind particularly vulnerable people. This includes legal reforms, registration of residency and documentation requirements which are appropriate also for displaced people and refugees, the waiving of fees, facilitated birth and subsequent registration and the issuance of identity cards.4 2 Cf. http://www.unhcr.org/protection/statelessness/54621bf49/global-action-plan-end-statelessness-2014-2024.html 3 This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244/1999 and the International Court of Justice Opinion on Kosovo’s declaration of independence. 4 Zagreb Declaration 27 October 2011, available here: http://www.unhcr.org/events/commemorations/4ec12d0d9/zagreb-declaration-confer- 12 UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018