VI. Advocacy and partnerships Joint OSCE-UNHCR efforts to tackle statelessness in the OSCE area In addition to some of the good practice examples presented throughout this guide, the OSCE and UNHCR have jointly raised awareness and assisted governments to prevent and reduce statelessness, in particular in Central Asia, South Eastern Europe, and lately also in Ukraine and the South Caucasus. For example, in 2009, UNHCR initiated a regional process with Central Asian governments, which included a series of national roundtables and culminated in a Regional Conference on Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection of Stateless Persons in Central Asia 143 organized jointly with the OSCE and the Government of Turkmenistan (Ashgabat, 9-10 December 2009). Among the goals of the Conference was the sharing of good practices related to the identification of stateless persons and solutions to statelessness, including legislative reform to bring nationality laws in to line with international standards and thereby prevent new cases of statelessness. The Conference resulted in a set of recommendations on how to identify, prevent, and reduce statelessness and how to protect those affected by it. A joint OSCE-UNHCR human rights co-ordination meeting on the topic of statelessness took place in Shaartuz, Tajikistan, in October 2016. This joint OSCE-UNHCR event brought together representatives of local passport offices, law enforcement agencies, jamoat as well as civil society organizations from the six regions of Tajikistan. The event marked the first of a series of activities planned to support efforts in the areas of refugee protection and statelessness, and to raise awareness on these topics among both governmental and non-governmental actors. This co-ordination meeting was a part of a wider range of meetings on human rights, organized by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan. In South-Eastern Europe, thousands of people – many of whom belong to the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian minorities – are stateless or of undetermined nationality. UNHCR, the HCNM, the ODIHR Contact Point on Roma and Sinti Issues, OSCE field operations in the region and the European Commission continue to work closely in assisting governments to resolve civil registration and nationality determination issues. The targeted 88