Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa stateless populations in different countries or lead to the development of regional mechanisms for addressing statelessness. For instance, in Europe and the Americas, where there is generally a common language for statelessness, as well as a firmer foundation of relevant international and regional legal obligations on states and a highly developed NGO community, it was only in 201225 and 201426 respectively that a region-wide civil society alliance against statelessness was established. Nevertheless, there remains a real risk that the MENA region will drop behind in terms of its response to statelessness if a shared understanding of the problem – if not also a shared language – is not developed as the issue continues to attract greater attention. It would be worthwhile further exploring what barriers exist in respect of forging broader regional collaboration to address statelessness in the MENA and adopting strategies to break down these barriers. This would greatly facilitate the opportunities for collective action and the sharing of experiences and good practices – a method which has, for example, already proven useful in the MENA region in the context of efforts around the assertion of women’s equal nationality rights. 25 - This is the European Network on Statelessness. For details see www. statelessness.eu. 26 - This is the Americas Network on Nationality and Statelessness. For details see http://www.americasns.org/. 28