 Empowering stateless persons through legal assistance and integration programmes: Stateless persons must be aware of their rights and may require practical or legal assistance with, for example, nationality verification processes. Any programmes to assist local populations with access to education, health care or income-generation should, where possible, also include stateless populations. Such socio-economic integration of stateless persons helps to create political will for achieving full integration through the acquisition of a nationality by lowering the political stakes for such a decision. Where possible, activities should also consider how integration can promote acquisition of a nationality, for instance by helping stateless persons to fulfil requirements for naturalization. For example, language classes not only help stateless persons improve their interactions with authorities generally but also to pass language tests which may be pre-requisites to the acquisition of nationality. Similarly, livelihood generating activities not only improve the daily lives of stateless persons and their families, but also help them meet naturalization requirements related to a stable income. C. UN SYSTEM ARRANGEMENTS The UN supports Member States in addressing situations of statelessness as integral to its efforts to strengthen the rule of law at the national and international levels. The expertise and activities of numerous UN departments, offices, funds, agencies and programmes are relevant to address situations of statelessness, including its causes and consequences. Involvement of a broad range of UN entities is required to address the problem effectively together with States, other international and regional organizations, NGOs, and community-based organisations. As noted above, UNHCR has a specific mandate entrusted to it by the General Assembly in 1995 to prevent and reduce statelessness and protect stateless persons. This global mandate complements UNHCR’s role as the UN agency responsible for assisting individuals and States to resolve the situation of individuals under the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. At the same time, effectively addressing statelessness requires a collaborative effort, and the mobilization and coordination of the requisite expertise. All UN agencies that work with stateless populations can address protection concerns in their respective sectors. Below is a non-exhaustive list of such areas as well as an indication of some of the relevant agencies, apart from UNHCR:  creating political will to address statelessness (Department of Political Affairs (DPA)/Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)/UN Country Teams);  procedural and substantive advice in peace negotiations and electoral systems and processes, to seize opportunities to reform relevant nationality laws and policies (DPA/DPKO);  promoting the prevention and reduction of statelessness as an element of good governance, the rule of law, and access to justice (United Nations Development Programme);  ensuring that national laws and policies on citizenship respect international law; - 15 -