6 All actors must prioritise listening to and learning from the lived experiences of those directly affected by statelessness, including stateless children, in order to imagine and implement useful and sustainable actions to address statelessness and protect the human rights of stateless persons. “We need to listen and make sure many different voices are represented.” Laetitia van den Assum Diplomatic Expert and Conference Chair 7 If a global movement is to flourish, it must provide a safe and equal space for all types of actors to come together and collectively drive the issue forward. Such a space will only begin to take shape when individuals and institutions reflect on and make concerted efforts to address power imbalances, recognise and deal with privilege and combat barriers to equal participation. Resources, language, freedom of movement and safety are all very real barriers which must be recognised and confronted. “In real life, for most people living in these cracks, life is marginalised and vulnerable, where one faces existential threat on a daily basis. It is a site of danger and precariousness though some have found agency through powerful mobilization.” Radhika Coomaraswamy Member of the UN Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and former Under-Secretary-General of the UN, Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict 8 We must work to simplify over-complicated bureaucratic requirements in civil registration and documentation procedures to reduce the risk of statelessness which current systems can cause, especially for minorities, refugees, migrants, nomads or other potentially marginalised groups. Where citizenship is denied or deprived, leading to severe rights violations, state accountability must be more effectively addressed. 10 We must prioritise awareness raising and facilitate the increased collaboration between different sectors in order to address the cross-cutting themes related to statelessness. Statelessness must be more effectively identified in order to appropriately tailor interventions for individuals and communities without a nationality – be it within humanitarian assistance, development programming or another sector. “[Statelessness] should be mainstreamed as part and parcel of statelessness awareness and literacy for people also dealing with conflict prevention, with humanitarian aid, with development corporation, for access to basic social services, with equal rights.” Marriët Schuurman, Human Rights’ Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 11 Given what we have come to understand about the deeper drivers behind the manipulation or even weaponisation of citizenship, we must do more to promote not just legal ‘remedies’ but also to challenge the narratives that allow statelessness to be created and perpetuated. Our collective efforts must be more inclusive of the arts and media, offering greater space for interdisciplinary collaboration. “The CANCELLED Arts Programme is rooted in the idea that something has to exist to be cancelled, any entity that has been cancelled does exist in the world, but we are denied access to it. … [We aim to] remove the boundary between art and other forms of practice and see if there is something where all sides benefit from a collaborative conversation.” David Cotterrell, Empathy & Risk 9 At the international, regional and national level we must strengthen our advocacy efforts and human rights engagement. We must also secure increased State accession to relevant treaties. 5