Regional Overview Regional Overview centralized models, the SSI architecture gives individuals control over their identity data, allowing them to share credentials selectively without exposing an entire database.44 Data is encrypted and accessible only with user consent. Significant limits remain, such as access being restricted to Bhutanese citizens, and leaving the historically displaced Lhotshampa population stateless and excluded.45 However, the design philosophy of consent, minimization and decentralization is a meaningful contribution to rights-respecting digital identity architecture. Timor-Leste’s Unique Identity Strategic Plan 2021–2025, developed with UNDP and EU support, is the only digital identity framework in Southeast Asia that explicitly aspires to include stateless persons, refugees and people without existing documents.46 The system is not yet fully operational, but the explicit commitment to inclusion at the policy-planning stage, before the system is built, is a model for other countries developing digital ID frameworks. Thailand’s Cabinet adopted a resolution on 29 October 2024 directing accelerated administrative pathways to nationality for an estimated 480,000 stateless persons across 76 provinces; implementation guidelines were issued in June 2025 and eligibility for the accelerated procedure began on 30 June 2025.47 The measure addresses statelessness at the legal identity level rather than through digital ID (Thailand’s ThaID and DGA platforms remain available only to Thai citizens, excluding pink-card holders). However, it creates conditions under which formerly stateless persons could in due course access digital ID upon acquiring citizenship. In Vietnam, The Law on Identity No. 26/2023/ QH15 provides for an Identity Certificate for persons of Vietnamese origin with undetermined nationality, enabling some access to education, healthcare and basic services without conferring citizenship.48 The VNeID digital identity system extends some e-ID access to foreign residents through tiered accounts. The pathway for non-Vietnamese stateless persons remains legally undefined. However, the creation of a specific document for persons of undetermined nationality, linked to service access, is an incremental yet meaningful step. alongside passports and driver licenses within New Zealand’s pluralistic identity framework.52 Although stateless persons cannot directly access RealMe without the underlying foundational documents, recognition of their identity through alternative documents is more inclusive than in most countries in the region. All five Central Asian states issue specific legal identity documents for stateless persons: Stateless Person Certificates in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan; certificates of stateless persons and residence permits in Tajikistan; and stateless permanent resident ID cards in Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan has gone further by extending some digital service access to stateless persons holding these certificates, including through dedicated digital portals for foreign nationals.49 The combination of legal recognition and a degree of digital service access represents a more inclusive model than is found in most other sub-regions. Palau has developed a Web3-based Digital Residency Program, originally launched in 2022, aimed at non-citizens and providing access to financial platforms, government services and digital contracts via Root Name System (RNS) technology.53 The program does not confer Palauan citizenship or residence rights and does not directly address statelessness. However, it demonstrates that a separate, dedicated digital identity track for non-citizens is technically and legally feasible without requiring citizenship documentation as a prerequisite. Turkmenistan’s National Action Plan to End Statelessness (2019–2024) culminated in November 2024, when the government announced that all known cases of statelessness had been resolved through grants of citizenship to more than 32,000 formerly stateless persons.50 This was achieved through civil registration reforms, application of nationality law and statelessness determination procedures rather than through digital ID systems. The measure demonstrates that systematic, rights-based statelessness resolution is feasible when backed by political commitment. Across Central Asia as a whole, UNHCR-supported initiatives have led to the grant of citizenship to more than 220,000 formerly stateless people over the past decade.51 New Zealand is the only Pacific state to provide specific, statutorily recognized identity documents for refugees (refugee travel document) and stateless persons (certificate of identity), each accepted as proof of legal identity Japan and Mongolia have adopted accessibility measures aimed at reducing barriers for elderly and digitally less literate populations. Japan’s My Number Card program provides multilingual callcenter support and digital literacy assistance;54 Mongolia’s E-Mongolia 5.0, launched on 20 September 2025, expanded mobile access and made selected services available to foreign residents.55 Although these measures target the digital divide for citizens and residents rather than stateless persons specifically, they demonstrate that accessibility can be designed into digital ID frameworks rather than retro-fitted. Across the five sub-regions, the following structural conditions emerge as preconditions for digital identity systems that do not entrench exclusion of stateless persons and other marginalized groups:  Universal birth registration accessible regardless of citizenship status, as a prerequisite for any rights based digital identity framework.  Civil-registration systems that explicitly extend registration access to non-citizens and stateless persons, rather than restricting registration to citizens.  Legal identity documents specifically designed for stateless persons (as seen in Central Asia, New Zealand and Viet Nam).  Integration of digital identity systems with statelessness determination procedures, civil registration systems and alternative identity pathways.  Alternative mechanisms for accessing essential services that do not require digital ID, ensuring that de facto mandatory digital identity systems do not produce new forms of exclusion.  Rights-based data protection frameworks that place robust limits on government surveillance, require encryption of biometric data and establish independent oversight bodies.  Dedicated complaint mechanisms for digital ID related grievances, allowing affected individuals to challenge exclusion.  Inclusive design processes that engage statelessness experts, civil society and affected communities before systems are built.  International cooperation on statelessness, including ratification of the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions, as a foundation for domestic legal frameworks Without such safeguards, digital ID systems risk deepening existing inequalities in access to legal identity and public services for the region’s most marginalized populations. 22 23 STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC THIRD EDITION - REGIONAL OVERVIEW REPORT 2026