“We breathe, we bleed, we vibrate under the same sky as you. Our cries; our whispers; our shouts, our demands; our love utterances; our curses; our prayers. We pulsate in and among these as you do, yet, in your need to recognise, hypothesise, categorise, theorise, legalise, you forget to humanise. We are not stateless, we are not merely a word, within the act of listening, lives the right to be heard.” Extract of spoken word poem ‘Humanise’ by Kristy Belton ISI / International Studies Association The World Conference on Statelessness brought together 290+ activists, advocates, academics, artists and other actors, and explored statelessness related challenges, opportunities, research, policy and advocacy; shaped the strategic direction of the field; found creative ways to respond to challenges and forged collaborations to achieve change. The Conference was a stepping-stone towards building a global movement to address statelessness, encompassing a wide-range of ideas, partnerships, actors and strategies and helped raise the profile of statelessness as a global issue, which must be understood and addressed, if we, as a global community, are to effectively address the biggest challenges that preoccupy us. The tenth and final Grand Challenge session of the Conference, ‘Transforming the Narrative Landscape: Advocacy, Activism and Art’ brought together advocates, activists and artists for a conversation about one of the bigger-picture questions we all face in our efforts to promote enjoyment of the right to a nationality – that of language and the approaches we take to understand, speak about, build alliances on and search for solutions to statelessness. All of the panellists expressed, in their own way, the need for the recognition and participation of affected persons in a true global movement to address statelessness. They highlighted how no one should 32 impose language on affected persons, creating the space instead, for them to define themselves. Panellist also spoke of a collective responsibility to challenge and transform narratives used for oppression. Ensuring meaningful participation was a key focus, with speakers recognising that this is an ever-evolving process but pointing out that clear communication and follow-up with affected persons is crucial. We must work to reduce the time stateless persons wait for their cases to be resolved, smartly engaging with the mainstream media, strategically picking which platforms to engage with and when to engage with them. The session began with a powerful spoken word poem ‘Humanise’ which questioned whether the need to “recognise, hypothesis, categorise, theorise and legalise” stateless people results in their dehumanisation. The language we use was critiqued – individuals without nationality are more than the word ‘stateless’ encapsulates. Their existence does not depend on how the world chooses to label them. Language was drawn on again and talked about in the context of challenging narratives imposed by authorities. While this was discussed in the context of Bahrain and the broad definitions of terrorism used to arbitrarily arrest individuals for activities such as peaceful assembly, it stands true for many different country contexts across the globe. Finally, language was further placed in the context of multidimensional