Foreword by the OSCE Secretary General and UN High Commissioner for Refugees It is estimated that at least 10 million people worldwide are stateless. Approximately one-third of them are children. Statelessness frequently arises from problems related to weaknesses in the rule of law, such as discrimination and arbitrary laws or practices. Stateless persons are often excluded from society throughout their lives, and denied the basic human rights that most of us take for granted: a legal identity upon birth; access to education, health care, official marriage and job opportunities; and even the dignity of a death certificate and official burial when they die. Many pass on the plight of statelessness to their children, who then pass it on to the next generation. No region in the world is free from statelessness. The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led to a massive increase in statelessness in the OSCE area. Even today, many people in the successor States remain affected but, thankfully, there is an increasing willingness among States, including in the OSCE area, to tackle the problem. Past experience shows that solutions are not necessarily complex or costly to implement. Addressing statelessness is largely a question of political will and often requires only minor changes to laws and policies. By contrast, the cost of excluding one segment of the population may prove higher in terms of social cohesion, stability and peace over the long term. In order to secure the necessary political will to deal with statelessness, more robust State-to-State engagement is critical. The UN General Assembly has entrusted UNHCR with a global mandate for the identification and protection of stateless persons, and the prevention and reduction of statelessness. In 2014 – the 60th anniversary of the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons – UNHCR launched the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024. A key component of the Campaign is the Global Action Plan, which comprises the 10 Actions that States are encouraged to take, with the support of UNHCR 5