60 Pledges 2011 - Ministerial Intergovernmental Event on Refugees and Stateless Persons The civilian population has paid a high price and has repeatedly been displaced in the bush or towards neighbouring countries. Today around 192,000 people are displaced internally and 136,000 people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Numerous efforts have been made to create a political environment favourable for national reconciliation with a view to establishing a lasting peace. With the national policy of decentralisation, local authorities are on duty and many services have been re-established. The majority of the population, and in particular those who are displaced, have lost all forms of civil documentation (birth certificate, identity card, etc.). This deprives them of some of their fundamental rights. This situation is made even more difficult by repeated forced displacements, the acute destitution of the population, insecurity, the distance and precariousness of administrative centres, and the financial cost of processing their cases. Nomadic peoples and persons whose names are not typical of the Central African Republic have systematically been denied nationality because of practices and considerations not based in law. A large number of displaced people are therefore at risk of statelessness. As a party to the 28 September 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the 30 August 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the Government of Central African Republic pledges to take all necessary and appropriate measures to: 1. Proceed to ratify the aforementioned conventions as soon as possible; 2. Continue its current efforts which should enable the delivery of birth certificates and national identity cards to all people affected by the conflicts, with a particular attention to people at risk of statelessness, such as Peulhs/Mbororos; 3. Continue its initiatives to complete ongoing work on the reform of the Nationality Code as well as to better manage migratory flows. II – Second pledge: Improve the protection of long-standing refugees Since 1963, the Central African Republic has hosted on its territory asylumseekers and refugees in search of international protection. Despite multiple setbacks owing to its own internal conflicts and in spite of huge security and economic challenges faced by this country until recently, the Central African Republic has remained faithful to its ideal of being a welcoming and hospitable land. It has therefore maintained a generous open-door policy for decades, which has allowed for the reception and settlement of numerous populations arriving in successive waves, including from the Sudan, Chad, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even at the