The first step towards addressing statelessness is to identify stateless populations, determine how they became stateless and understand how the legal, institutional and policy frameworks relate to those causes and offer possible solutions. The best means of addressing statelessness is to prevent it from occurring. States are the principal actors responsible for the prevention of statelessness because they are responsible for determining how nationality can be acquired, changed and lost. Nonetheless, in determining who their nationals are, States must act within the limits imposed by international law. International legal standards recommend the adoption of safeguards in the nationality legislation of States in order to prevent statelessness from occurring, either at birth or later in life. Human rights treaties contain a number of safeguards but the most comprehensive set of standards in this domain is contained in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The Convention establishes, for example, that children should acquire the nationality of the State in which they are born if they would otherwise be stateless, that individuals cannot renounce their nationality without having acquired another and that they cannot be deprived of nationality on discriminatory grounds. Despite these efforts, statelessness has continued to occur, often in situations of State succession or in the context of migration. UNHCR’s Executive Committee has therefore emphasized that action by States is needed to reduce statelessness, that is, to find a durable solution for existing cases of statelessness. Reduction of statelessness requires formal, legal integration in the State through the confirmation or attribution of nationality. But it also requires increased social and economic participation. Until such time as nationality is acquired, stateless persons must enjoy economic, social, cultural and civil rights. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons sets out a framework for the protection of stateless persons which is complemented by international human rights law. The broad issues which relate to the identification (or mapping) of statelessness are addressed in Chapter 1 of the Framework, entitled Favourable Protection Environment. Prevention and reduction of statelessness are addressed in Chapter 2. Issues relating to the protection of stateless persons are addressed in the following four chapters: Chapter 3 examines Fair Protection Processes and Documentation, Chapter 4 focuses on Security from Violence and Exploitation, Chapter 5 on Basic Needs and Essential Services, and Chapter 6 on Community Participation, Self Management and Self-Reliance. v