Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals Consideration of statelessness within development plans and initiatives should be guided by the following principles: • Do no harm: taking a risk mitigation approach to ensure that all project designs consider (potential) impacts on stateless persons, such that their rights will not be compromised by implementation and the risks of statelessness for vulnerable groups will not be increased. • Inclusion: taking active steps to ensure that stateless persons (and those without identity documents recognizing a nationality) are consulted on their needs and not excluded from development programming; undertaking targeted outreach efforts among groups known to be at risk of statelessness and exclusion. • Addressing root causes: supporting measures to address the underlying causes of exclusion through the identification, prevention and reduction of statelessness. The different dimensions of efforts to address statelessness—including both the identification and protection of stateless persons and the prevention and resolution of statelessness—can be advanced through development programmes. Rule of law interventions can support governments to establish transparent and rights-respecting rules on the determination of nationality status and procedures for the issue of identity document and can support legal assistance to improve access to justice for poor and marginalized communities, including assistance in resolving challenges in establishing nationality. Rule of law initiatives are also important to strengthen independent oversight mechanisms. Fulfilling SDG Target 16.9, especially by achieving universal birth registration, will make an important contribution towards ending statelessness. But it is not sufficient. Ending statelessness requires recognition or grant of the particular element of legal identity, that is nationality – ideally of the country to which the person has the closest connections. The introduction of new identity management systems is a known danger point for the creation of statelessness and exclusion of those who cannot satisfy the enrolment criteria, even if they are entitled to do so as a matter of law. The “do no harm” principle thus requires careful auditing of the expansion of new identification technologies, and their likely impacts on statelessness. At the same time, efforts by development actors to strengthen civil registration and identity management systems present an opportunity to identify and put in place new mechanisms for determination of the status of those whose nationality is in doubt. Development initiatives should always promote universal access to basic public services, including for stateless persons. However, the underlying causes of their exclusion must also be resolved if disproportionate levels of poverty among stateless people are to be addressed on a long-term basis. This may sometimes necessarily involve special outreach programmes to ensure that those prevented by administrative obstacles from accessing basic services and from gaining recognition of nationality to which they have a legal entitlement are enabled to do so. This report establishes the clear linkages between development, the sustainable development goals and efforts to prevent and reduce statelessness. It highlights that a rights-based approach to development requires that development actors and initiatives increasingly become part of the solution to address statelessness and end the marginalization and exclusion of millions of people around the world. 10