Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 53 (2021) Ghosts in America: Working Towards Building a Legal Framework for Stateless Individuals in the United States statelessness. 123 These incongruent approaches to statelessness have hindered the overall international effort to end statelessness. A) The UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign The UNHCR is the United Nations (UN) agency that is responsible for responding to the needs of stateless persons. 124 However, the UNHCR’s responsibility for stateless persons was largely overshadowed by its work with refugees and internal displacement issues. 125 Overtime, the UNHCR’s responsibilities regarding stateless individuals has expanded. 126 Statelessness has now become one of the UNHCR’s core budget activities. 127 On November 4, 2014, the UNHCR launched its #IBelong Campaign, which aims to end statelessness by 2024. 128 The goals of this UNHCR initiative includes resolving major situations of statelessness and preventing new cases from emerging. 129 The UNHCR has focused its efforts on persuading and supporting states to take key actions to sever the vicious cycle of statelessness. 130 Those key actions include: 1) ensuring that every birth is registered to help establish legal proof of parentage and place of birth, 2) ensuring that all children are granted nationality if they would otherwise be stateless, 3) removing gender discrimination from nationality laws so that women can pass on their nationality to their children on an equal basis as men, 4) resolving current situations of statelessness through changes to legislation or government policy, and 5) eliminating discrimination because of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or disability. 131 Since the UNHCR’s campaign began, more than 166,000 stateless people have acquired or had their nationality confirmed, twenty states have acceded to the Statelessness Conventions, nine states have established or improved statelessness determination procedures, six states reformed their nationality laws, and another two have eliminated 123. See, e.g., id. at 139 (discussing Myanmar’s open violation of international norms by granting status based on national race). 124. Katia Bianchini, Protecting Stateless Persons: The Implementation of the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons Across EU States 11 INT’L REFUGEE L. SERIES 59, 63 (2018). 125. Id. 126. Id. 127. Id. at 65. 128. What is Statelessness?, supra note 55. 129. Id. 130. Ending Statelessness Within 10 Years, supra note 26, at 21. 131. Id. at 21–22. 371