ChaChapter 1: Nationality and Statelessness problem that they are not considered as a national by any state is not one that is viewed as a priority in strategizing on possible solutions. Meanwhile, with a growing movement to put the issue of statelessness on the global agenda and more and more international organizations and States making concrete efforts to address the issue, the Middle East and North Africa region is in danger of falling behind. For example, at a ministerial meeting organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva in December 2011, governments from around the world pledged to take action to address statelessness by acceding to the UN statelessness conventions, taking various forms of action within their territory or even promoting solutions to statelessness through their foreign policy. The only region where no country made a pledge to address statelessness was the MENA – despite the fact that numerous MENA states did participate actively in this meeting and make pledges with regard to other areas of cooperation with UNHCR.22 Moreover, with the exception of the stateless populations in Kuwait and Syria, rarely have situations of statelessness from the MENA region featured in the work the international 22 - UNHCR, Pledges 2011: Ministerial Intergovernmental Event on Refugees and Stateless Persons, 7-8 December 2011, available at: http://www.unhcr. org/4ff55a319.html. 25