Bangladesh nn Statelessness affecting the Urdu-speaking minority was resolved as a result of sustained community-based advocacy, a successful litigation strategy and lobbying for the implementation of court decisions upholding the Bangladeshi citizenship of this group. nn National advocacy was bolstered by increasing pressure from the international community to reduce statelessness among the Urdu-speakers. nn UNHCR played an important liaison role between national campaigners, the international community and the Government of Bangladesh. UNHCR’s awareness-raising activities encouraged other UN actors, including the UN Country Team, to work to reduce statelessness among the Urdu-speakers. nn A landmark High Court ruling and a favourable political environment led to the prompt implementation of the court’s decision and the allocation of resources to ensure that Urdu-speakers were registered in the voter rolls and received national identification cards.78 Statelessness among the Urdu-speakers The Urdu-speaking community of Bangladesh, also known as the “Biharis”, is a linguistic minority that was excluded from the body of citizens upon the creation of the independent State of Bangladesh in 1971. The Urdu-speakers comprise individuals who emigrated from India at the time of partition to settle in the then East Pakistan, as well as their descendants. During Bangladesh’s Liberation War, some Urdu-speakers sided with Pakistan. As a result, all Urdu-speakers in Bangladesh faced violence and were forced to convene in camps run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Whereas some 100,000 Urdu-speakers were repatriated to Pakistan,7 more than 100,000 remained, mostly in the camps, which turned into permanent settlements. The community then entered a cycle of poverty and exclusion from mainstream Bangladeshi society. By 2006, it was estimated that there were 151,000 Urdu-speakers in 116 camps and settlements in Bangladesh, with approximately 100,000 additional Urdu-speakers living outside camps throughout the country. Although the Urdu-speakers qualified for Bangladeshi citizenship pursuant to the relevant laws in force,8 in practice, from 1971-2008, the Bangladeshi authorities refused to consider the remaining Urdu-speakers in Bangladesh as its nationals. Urduspeakers were systematically excluded by the Government from exercising many of the rights accorded to Bangladeshi citizens, including national identity documents and education, as well as other basic services. The fact that the Urdu-speaking community was entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship by law but denied it in practice meant that any change in the situation would require a fundamental shift in Government 7 Only a portion of Urdu-speakers who registered to repatriate to Pakistan were eventually repatriated pursuant to tripartite agreements between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1973 and 1974. 8 According to the Adaptation of Existing Bangladesh Laws Order of 1972, all pre-existing laws were to remain in force, meaning that the Pakistani Citizenship Act of 1951 governs nationality. This law confers Bangladeshi citizenship on every person born in Bangladesh after independence or born to a father who is a citizen of Bangladesh. Further, the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order of 1972, also known as the President’s Order, confirmed as Bangladeshi citizens all those who were resident in Bangladesh at the time of independence and continued to reside in Bangladesh, without any ethnic or linguistic distinctions, in addition to those who were born in Bangladesh or whose father or grandfather was born there. Please see Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951 (Bangladesh) [Bangladesh], II of 1951, 13 April 1951, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b52a8.html; and Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order, 1972 [Bangladesh], 149 of 1972, 26 March 1971, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b51f10.html. 9 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS