     address statelessness. Indeed, some Asian states, especially from Central Asia, have been lauded as ‘eradicating statelessness’; for example, the Kyrgyz Republic was praised by UNHCR and UNICEF as ‘the first country in the world that solved the issue of statelessness’.28 These effective approaches could also provide important roadmaps and guidance to other countries seeking to address statelessness. Thus, we believe there are several compelling reasons to examine the region that is thus far the least explored in scholarship on statelessness. Anghie observes that ‘the significance of “regional international law” has increased in recent times as a result of the emergence of regional entities with carefully defined memberships, and corresponding adjudicatory systems.’29 In the context of statelessness, much of the boundary-pushing normative development is emerging in regional settings with these features, such as Europe,30 Africa,31 and Latin America.32 By comparison, this book offers an opportunity to examine what happens in a region without such robust structures and what impact a lack of regional regulatory settings has on the causes and consequences of statelessness. While previous scholarship has explored the ‘rejection’ of international refugee law in Southeast Asia33 and the ‘ambivalence’ in Asia of international law and institutions,34 the contributions from Uzbekistan and the Philippines in this volume offer a counterpoint to the ‘exceptionalism’ narrative. Furthermore, in terms of international law relevant to statelessness, it is worth observing that Asia, and specifically Myanmar, has been the site for testing accountability at international law UNICEF, ‘Kyrgyzstan to become the first stateless-free country in the world’ (Press Release, 4 July 2019) <www.unicef.org/kyrgyzstan/press-releases/kyrgyzstan-becomefirst-stateless-free-country-world> accessed 12 September 2023. 29 Antony Anghie ‘Identifying Regions in the History of International Law’ in Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Oxford University Press 2012) 1077. 30 Katia Bianchini, Protecting Stateless Persons: The Implementation of the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons across EU States (Brill Nijhoff 2018). 31 The Protocol to the African Convention on Human Rights and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa was adopted in February 2024 during the 37th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of the Heads of State and Governments. 32 The statelessness determination procedures and frameworks for protection in Latin America are considered world-leading. 33 Sara E. Davies, Legitimising Rejection: International Refugee Law in Southeast Asia (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2008). 34 Simon Chesterman, ‘Asia’s Ambivalence about International Law and Institutions: Past, Present and Futures’ (2016) 27(4) European Journal of International Law 945. 28 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009399555.003 Published online by Cambridge University Press