Artee worries that without citizenship, her dream will be shattered and that she will have to return to work on her parents’ farm. Her fellow classmates have their dreams too – mathematics teacher, policeman, musician – but they too are waiting to have their Thai nationality confirmed. They are all members of the Akha community and many lack any nationality. However, in some places hope is being kindled, as governments begin to realize the difference that granting a nationality can mean to the lives of young stateless people, and to the valuable contribution they can make to the prosperity, security and wellbeing of the communities in which they live. was a master pizza maker in the house! I even started teaching pizza-making to Bangladeshi migrants in the course. I would love to have my own pizzeria but for that I need to get citizenship. I want to find a job, a house. I want a regular life. For others, these things might seem trivial, but for me they are not.” Eroding dreams A feature common to the stateless individuals consulted was the sense of dreams unravelling before they could even begin to be realized. Talented individuals with a strong desire to contribute to their communities and societies were being forced to settle for the limited opportunities on offer to those without a nationality. “I want to become a doctor,” says Julia (16) in the Dominican Republic. “I want to help people, everyone in the community who gets sick – you don’t only help people who have money. But I’m losing hope because I don’t have documents. I won’t be able to take the final high school exams and go to university.” Jirair in Georgia, who aspires to be a wrestler, knows that time is running out: “The doors of the world are closed to me. Everybody left for a tournament and I stayed behind to train here alone. The coaches support me, saying: ‘It is OK, be patient, keep training.’ Everybody leaves and when they come back they are full of new updates. I listen to their stories and inside I am crying. But I still hope to become a good coach for young people, to set a good example. The one thing I need to achieve my dreams is citizenship.” Artee (18) of the Akha community in Thailand is a serious and diligent student with a strong sense of pride in her school and her community. She leads student volunteers in local reforestation projects, campaigns against drug trafficking in her community and provides assistance to those recovering from addiction. Her peers and teachers regard her with respect. Artee’s real passion is dance. “My dream is to be a dance teacher,” says the 18-year-old. “I want to teach traditional dance and other dances in a government school in the mountainous area. I want to conserve and show Thai culture to other people around the world. But I think it’s impossible because I don’t have Thai nationality.” Artee, 18, Thailand. Javier, 19, The Dominican Republic. ©UNHCR / R. ARNOLD 20 Following important reforms to Thailand’s na- S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T tionality and civil-registration laws and the adoption of a progressive national strategy to address nationality and legal status, there are signs of hope in the district of Mae Fa Luang, in Chiang Rai province, where Artee and her friends learn, play and grow up together. The district office in Mae Fa Luang is focused on resolving the nationality and documentation issues that children like Artee face, and has established procedures to address the problem. The District Commissioner understands the value that these children put on an ID card showing that the holder is a Thai citizen. “I have a lot of sympathy for those who don’t have nationality,” he says. “Nothing can compensate for the rights that these children would have if they were Thai”. Promising initiatives are also underway elsewhere: in Côte d’Ivoire, a simple declaration procedure has been put in place to allow stateless individuals with longstanding ties to the country to acquire Ivorian nationality; in Georgia, recent law reforms now allow stateless people to have their status recognized and puts them on a clear path to acquire Georgian nationality; in Malaysia, the government has established a campaign to increase its efforts to promote access to nationality and is accepting applications from stateless people to grant them Malaysian identity cards through a civil society initiative; steps are being taken in the Dominican Republic to restore nationality to stateless individuals who were deprived of their Dominican nationality; and Italy is on the verge of becoming a party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which includes important safeguards to prevent childhood statelessness. S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T 21 ©UNHCR / M. REDONDO or voluntary work just to obtain some useful skills. Valentino (21) a stateless Roma man, convinced his municipal council to allow him to attend a baking course. “I have done a municipal course in pizza making,” he says. “I became really good. I worked at a friend’s pizzeria and the customers asked if there