2025 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 7(1) work of organisations led by people affected by statelessness is changing the configurations of regional and global advocacy.66 Unequal power relations between these levels, however, are a social reality that have dominated and defined anti-statelessness work, despite efforts to dismantle hierarchies. Priorities within the sector were for many years set from the top down based on donor, state and philanthropist priorities, as well as other pragmatic factors. The ‘I Belong’ campaign, which ran from 2014 to 2024 and was led by the UNHCR, largely shaped the funding and priorities of international advocacy activities to combat statelessness. 67 Broadly speaking, this campaign operated within a statist system that promoted universal registration and ‘legal identities for all’, bypassing more critical, radical and bottom-up approaches to challenging citizenship stripping.68 The recently launched follow-up campaign of the Global Alliance to End Statelessness has a different governance structure that reflects attempts within the sector to level the playing field and engage in more meaningful forms of participation. 69 As such, many of the organisations involved in the management and priority setting for this campaign are either stateless-led or involved in frontline work with stateless people.70 Nonetheless, the influence of groups that are directly affected by citizenship stripping and resist state violence on the ground continues to be limited by various structural constraints, as considered in the Parts that follow. Within anti-statelessness work, ground-level paralegal services in multiple settings have supported individuals in obtaining legal identities and citizenship recognition. NGOs and networks of lawyers have also challenged discriminatory registration and administrative processes, pushing for better access to both legal identities and basic services (such as health, education and social care) for individuals at risk of statelessness.71 These initiatives have had important impacts on the lives of those affected by statelessness. They tend to initially address the statelessness of individuals, before building momentum towards challenging discrimination in civil registration and citizenship laws, sometimes using approaches such as strategic litigation. These legal interventions are well covered 66 67 68 69 70 71 See, eg, the diverse membership of the Statelessness Alliance (n 65). Kristy A Belton, ‘Ending Statelessness through Belonging: A transformative agenda?’ (2016) 30(4) Ethics & International Affairs 419; Lindsey N Kingston, ‘“A Forgotten Human Rights Crisis”: Statelessness and Issue (Non)Emergence’ (2013) 14(2) Human Rights Review 73. Hajime Akiyama, ‘Critical Analysis on Ending Statelessness and UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign’ in The Japan Association for United Nations Studies (‘JAUNS’) (ed), Evolution of the United Nations System: An East Asian Perspective (Routledge 2023) 163; Brinham, Citizenship and Genocide Cards (n 4). ‘Taskforce’, Global Alliance to End Statelessness (Web Page, 2025) <https://statelessnessalliance.org/taskforce/>, archived at <perma.cc/JGS4-87QP> (‘Statelessness Alliance Taskforce’). See Statelessness Alliance (n 65). See, eg, ‘Statelessness Unit’, Lawyers for Human Rights (Web Page) <https://www.lhr.org.za/lhr-units/statelessness-project/>, archived at <perma.cc/659H-57DJ>; ‘Right to Nationality (Statelessness)’, Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (‘DHRRA’) Malaysia (Web Page, 2022) <https://dhrramalaysia.org.my/initiatives/right-to-nationality-statelessness/>, archived at <perma.cc/TC3M-FQRV>. 18