Georgia converts ambitious pledges into positive actions for protection To mark the midpoint of the #IBelong Campaign and convene a wide range of States, organizations and other partners, UNHCR held a High-Level Segment on Statelessness in October 2019. The meeting resulted in 360 new pledges to end statelessness: 70 from civil society organizations, 38 from international and regional organizations, and 252 from States. Six of those pledges were from Georgia, which committed to: • • • • • • Facilitate naturalization for stateless persons by halving the 10-year residence period required for naturalization Reduce the fee for statelessness determination procedures in half to increase accessibility Include statelessness status applicants in emergency outpatient and inpatient care for the State’s universal healthcare program Establish the right to free legal aid for stateless status applicants, through counselling and representation by the state-funded Legal Aid Service Begin a door-to-door campaign to identify and document stateless persons Work with UNHCR to raise awareness and foster common understanding about statelessness in an inclusive manner With support from UNHCR, the Government of Georgia began these activities right away, and they have already produced notable results. In 2021, Georgia implemented two of its pledges: reducing the statelessness status application fee and enacting amendments that entitle stateless applicants to access emergency healthcare. The following year, the Government conducted a door-to-door campaign that raised awareness of the statelessness determination procedure and provided critical support to vulnerable populations that lacked the wherewithal to pursue such procedures on their own. The door-to-door campaign was led by Georgia’s Public Service Development Agency with the primary goal of identifying and documenting stateless persons. It was conducted from April until December 2022 and reached a variety of regions throughout the country. Mobile teams interviewed families and individuals and provided free identification to those who lacked such documentation. In 2023, Georgia made good on its promise to facilitate naturalization of stateless people, decreasing the residence requirement to five years. And finally, in 2024, stateless people were exempted from fees associated with the naturalization process. Other notable achievements: • The Americas region has demonstrated significant progress under this action. Since the launch of the Campaign, eight countries in the region have established statelessness determination procedures (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay), bringing the total number to nine, as Mexico adopted a procedure before the Campaign. Two others (Chile and Peru) are in the process of adopting a procedure. There are multiple good practices within these procedures, which include facilitated naturalization for stateless persons, and granting range of rights including family reunification, access to work, health, education, and travel documents. • In August 2023, The United States Department of Homeland Security issued new guidance to assist stateless individuals, which clarifies who is considered stateless and creates a mechanism for providing internal guidance to decision-makers. • Ukraine established a statelessness determination procedure in 2020 and then adopted an amendment to its Citizenship Law in 2021, allowing recognized stateless people to apply for naturalization after three years instead of seven years. • In 2020, Cote d’Ivoire established the first-ever statelessness determination procedure in Africa, which was operationalized in 2021. #IBELONG 31