Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals 4.3 Addressing root causes: prevention and reduction of statelessness Ultimately, the negative development impacts of statelessness will only be addressed by ending statelessness itself, not by temporary measures for the inclusion of stateless persons within development programming. This will require reforms to laws and procedures as well as specific efforts during outreach to resolve the status of those nationality is in doubt and grant nationality where required. Legal and procedural reform for the prevention of statelessness Statelessness is a product of law and will in most cases require legal reform to address it. Development professionals may feel ill-equipped to conduct the analysis necessary to identify what the gaps and problems are in the legal and procedural framework in any particular country – even their own. In most cases, however, there is no need to conduct such an analysis from scratch. UNHCR has commissioned research in many countries into the legal and administrative gaps that lead to statelessness. The first step is to consult the resources available on RefWorld (UNHCR's global law and policy database on refugee law and statelessness), as well as those provided by civil society organizations including the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and the European Network on Statelessness, and the country reports on citizenship law prepared by the European University Institute GLOBALCIT project. The Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative website provides resources for the African continent. These and other resources are listed in the annex to this report. In some countries, reports relevant to statelessness and legal identity have been adopted by national constitutional bodies such as human rights institutions or ombuds offices, on which development agencies may rely as the basis for engagement with government institutions on the need to address gaps in law and policy that perpetuate poverty. Ending discrimination Among the most important measures to prevent and reduce statelessness are the removal of discriminatory legal provisions and administrative requirements for recognition or acquisition of nationality.224 Within the #IBELONG campaign to end statelessness, the UNHCR annual reports on gender discrimination in nationality laws have repeatedly called for an end to such discrimination,225 also providing examples of good practices for achieving this.226 Other UNHCR reports on discrimination in nationality acquisition have focused on the exclusion of minorities from nationality procedures and called for an end to discrimination on any prohibited ground.227 A number of the thematic special rapporteurs appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council have made similar calls228 and the Human Rights Council itself has adopted a number of resolutions over several decades calling on states “to refrain from taking measures and from enacting legislation that discriminates against persons or groups of persons on grounds of race, colour or national or ethnic origin” in exercise of the right to nationality, as well as to respect equal rights for men and women.229 224. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Discrimination against women on nationality related matters”; UNHCR, “Good practices paper – Action 3: Removing gender discrimination from nationality laws” (Geneva: United Nations, March 2015), www.refworld.org/policy/opguidance/ unhcr/2015/en/104247; UNHCR, UNICEF and the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, “Gender discrimination and childhood statelessness” (United Nations, August 2019), www.unhcr.org/ibelong/gender-discrimination-and-stateless-children/; UNHCR, “Background note on gender equality, nationality laws and statelessness 2023”. 225. The most recent is: UNHCR, “Background note on gender equality, nationality laws and statelessness 2025". https://www.refworld.org/sites/default/ files/2025-03/background_note_on_gender_equality_nationality_laws_and_statelessness_-_2025-v357.pdf. 226. UNHCR, “Good practices paper – Action 3”. 227. UNHCR, “This is our home”; UNHCR, “Background note on discrimination in nationality laws and statelessness”; UNHCR, “Guidelines on statelessness No. 5”. 228. Gay McDougall, “Report of the independent expert on minority issues: minorities and the discriminatory denial or deprivation of citizenship” (Geneva: United Nations Human Rights Council, 23 February 2008), https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/622110?ln=en; Achiume, “Racial discrimination in the context of citizenship, nationality and immigration status”; Alsalem, “Violence against women and girls, nationality laws and statelessness”; Fernand de Varennes, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues: statelessness: a minority issue”, A/73/205 (New York: United Nations, 28 July 2018), https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/73/205; Achiume, “Racial discrimination in the context of citizenship, nationality and immigration status”. 229. Resolutions on arbitrary deprivation of nationality have been adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights (dating back at least to 1997: Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, E/CN.4/1997/36, Commission on Human Rights, 11 April 1997, http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/UN/1997/Res036. html) and by its successor the Human Rights Council; the most recent are available here www.ohchr.org/en/nationality-and-statelessness/resolutions. See also: United Nations Human Rights Council, “Resolution 20/4: The right to a nationality: women and children”, A/HRC/RES/20/4 (Geneva: United Nations, 16 July 2012); United Nations Human Rights Council, “Resolution 32/7: Women’s equal nationality rights in law and in practice”, A/HRC/ RES/32/7 (Geneva: United Nations, 18 July 2016); UN Human Rights Council, “Resolution 53/16: The Right to a Nationality: Equality in Nationality Rights in Law and in Practice”, A/HRC/RES/53/16 (Geneva: United Nations, 24 July 2023). 57