VI. Advocacy and partnerships Identifying key stakeholders and raising awareness among them are often the first steps necessary to address statelessness. Sharing available knowledge and drawing attention to existing gaps is important to increase understanding, which in turn serves as a basis for developing strategies to address the problem. To ensure that the plight of stateless people is understood and their voices are heard, it is not only necessary to raise awareness but also to undertake sustained advocacy and strengthen partnerships among key stakeholders. State institutions such as legislative bodies, ministries, local authorities, the judiciary, and national human rights institutions play a key role in addressing statelessness, and their involvement is of paramount importance. Although there is sometimes an overlap, the authorities dealing with nationality and statelessness may not be the same as those responsible for national minorities, forced displacement issues or migration. Effective responses may, therefore, require developing new government partnerships. Outreach activities with the concerned populations, including with a view to gathering evidence that feeds into targeted awareness-raising campaigns and advocacy, is often most effectively conducted by local grass-roots and community-based groups who are familiar with the stateless or at risk populations and the local context. The following sections provide information on existing partnerships among key stakeholders and their roles in addressing statelessness. Concrete activities and examples of the joint engagement of diverse actors from within OSCE participating States will be shown. Left page: Montenegro. Limbo of statelessness: The Feta family fled Kosovo in 1999. Six out of their eight children were born outside the health system. With the new amendments to the Law on Non-Contentious Proceedings, the births of all their children have finally been registered. © UNHCR/Miomir Laban 79