Statelessness, Development, and Protection of ‘Disadvantaged Groups’ Figure 2: Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030)  Source: United Nations – SDGs (2020) Significantly, the campaign to end statelessness, championed by the UNHCR-led #Ibelong and its 10-point Global Action Plan have focused on the right to nationality, identity, and birth registration, as protected under international human rights treaties. These now find support in the SDGs, just as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and other relevant regional instruments such as the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), and the 1997 European Convention on Nationality are relevant to statelessness. Hence, several goals can contribute to preventing and reducing statelessness, including enhancing the wellbeing of stateless persons and groups.45 How applicable are the SDGs to statelessness? Given the fact that most of the world’s stateless persons and communities remained consigned to the bottom of society in terms of economic opportunity, social inclusion and political participation, the principal objective of the 2030 Agenda ‘to reach the furthest behind first’ and ‘leave no one behind’ distinctly applies to the stateless. Specific SDGs and targets (see Figure 3), if properly implemented, will help prevent and reduce statelessness. These notably inlude SDG 5, Target 5.1 — relating to the elimination of gender discrimination, and SDG 16, Target 16.9 — urging states to provide legal identity for all, and birth registration.46 Moreover, the SDGs and related targets also illustrate their relevance to improving the stateless persons' living conditions. For instance, SDG 4, Target 4.1 obliges states’ commitment to ensuring by 2030, ‘that all girls and boys complete 45 46 Blitz op cit note 2. UNHCR op cit note 16. 67