Cate Blanchett described statelessness as “A condition of invisibility... stateless people are unseen and unheard” and referred to Maha Mamo as “an extraordinary beacon of hope.” Civil society, still benefiting from the momentum of the Conference and the strengthening of connections and of international solidarity, seized the opportunity of the UNHCR High Level Segment to join forces and take collective action. Firstly, to mark this milestone in the campaign, they issued a joint statement “Now is the Time to Act.” Identifying that the threat of statelessness is growing, and new risks of statelessness are outpacing the efforts to remedy the situation, the statement is explicit in its message that in the majority of cases, statelessness could have already been eradicated if governments fully implemented their obligations under international law. It calls on governments and the UN to, with support from civil society, increase action and address seven key challenges – many of which were also central in discussions at the conference, including tackling the discrimination that drives so many situations of statelessness and addressing evolving practices around citizenship stripping. Secondly, during the lunch break on the day of the High-Level Segment in Geneva, a side event co-organised by civil society groups working to end statelessness and UNHCR was held in the UN Palais. It drew on the work by civil society activists and experts from different geographic regions and covering different thematic issues, to showcase efforts made to end statelessness from a civil society perspective. The side-event provided an opportunity to take stock of significant achievements, identify steps States are encouraged to take, discuss the role of the civil society in mobilising action and identify key obstacles to ensuring nationality rights for all. Well over 300 commitments were made on the occasion of UNHCR’s High-Level Segment on Statelessness – by States, UN and civil society actors. Indeed, more than 55 States made concrete pledges, including on such action as acceding to or ratifying the UN Statelessness Conventions, facilitating naturalisation for stateless people, preventing statelessness by ending gender discrimination in nationality laws, ensuring universal birth registration, providing protection to stateless people and enhancing or initiating data collection on stateless population. Grandi stated that this shows “...there is an unprecedented level of political will and commitment to resolve this issue and prevent it...It is crucial that these commitments are now turned into action...” 39