Opening remarks during the League of Arab States Ministerial meeting on “Belonging and Legal Identity”, Tunis, Tunisia ©UNHCR/Els Jellema On 14 March, a high-level side event, “Advancing Gender Equality in Nationality Laws”, was held at the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) in New York. The event, which was organized by the Global Campaign on Equal Nationality Rights, drew many government delegations as well as civil society leaders and journalists. Co-sponsors included Australia, Madagascar, Morocco, Sierra Leone, the Office of the Permanent Observer for the League of Arab States to the United Nations, UNHCR, UN Women, UNICEF, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. This impressive group of delegations led a powerful discussion about the benefits of removing gender discrimination from nationality laws, drawing on lessons learned from recent reforms. On 20 March, the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) launched an innovative new online tool called the Statelessness Index. The tool is currently in a pilot phase and contains comparative data on statelessness for 12 European countries, including population data as well as information concerning adherence to international and regional instruments, statelessness determination procedures, detention, and prevention and reduction of statelessness. In its Annual Update on Machine-Readable Convention Travel Documents (MRCTDs) for Refugees and Stateless persons, UNHCR reported on progress achieved with respect to issuance of MRCTDs globally. 30 States are reported to issue MRCTDs to stateless persons in conformity with international standards, while 15 States are reported to issue other travel documents to stateless persons. There thus remains significant room for improvement with respect to issuance of MRCTDs to stateless persons worldwide. 2