© UNHCR/Hector Perez CATE BLANCHETT, UNHCR GOODWILL AMBASSADOR Everyone should have the right to belong. It’s something that most of us take for granted: documents to prove that we were born, that we exist. Documents that allow us to navigate life’s stages with relative ease. But today a shocking number of people are stateless, denied even the basic acknowledgement of their existence, belonging nowhere. To deny a person of their nationality is to force them down a path fraught with more obstacles, dangers and uncertainties than most of us ever experience. Last year at the Global Refugee Forum, I spent time with a young woman named Neha Gurung. Born to a single mother in Nepal, Neha was stateless from the moment she entered the world because Nepalese law doesn’t allow women to pass nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. As a result, Neha was met by obstacles at every turn: denied a birth certificate, denied voter registration, and initially denied the chance to pursue her education. While her peers were busy making future plans and setting career goals, Neha said, her time was consumed by running between government offices with her mother, pleading for documents to prove her existence and to ensure her right to a nationality. She described feeling like a prisoner in her own country. Neha finally obtained citizenship in 2017 through a decision from the Supreme Court of Nepal, when she was in her early twenties. She passed the bar exam in 2021 and is now a lawyer advocating for thousands of Nepalis who are eligible for nationality but have faced formidable obstacles in obtaining legal identity documentation to confirm their status as citizens. Stateless people face a life in the shadows through no fault of their own. They may be stateless because the right to nationality is determined by only male bloodlines, or due to ethnic or religious prejudice, or because the country in which they used to be nationals has ceased to exist. It could be because nationality laws fail to ensure no one is rendered stateless, or due to bureaucratic obstacles that make it difficult - or impossible - to acquire or prove one’s citizenship or have a birth registered. The good news is that statelessness is a problem that can, with political will, be solved. In the past 10 years, there has been remarkable global progress around the world in addressing the situations that leave people without a nationality, through new laws and policies. Since 2014, more than half a million stateless people have gained citizenship around the world: 20 countries have improved rights for stateless people, 13 countries have passed laws to ensure that no child is born stateless, and one country – Kyrgyzstan – has resolved all known cases of statelessness in its territory. The #IBelong Campaign has changed lives, but there is still more to be done to address statelessness. When we met, Neha emphasized the need for global leaders to help empower and amplify the voices of stateless individuals who have already faced so much trauma and so many obstacles. We must make sure that anyone still living without nationality is given the right to be recognized and included, so that no child is born stateless, and everyone can unlock their potential as future citizens. #IBELONG 5