On 22 November, UNHCR, the State Registration Service of the Kyrgyz Republic and civil society organizations convened the second working group meeting with all territorial passport divisions on the statelessness caseload. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss challenges that impede resolution of the remaining cases of statelessness. It resulted in an agreement to work towards resolving 700 stateless cases by early 2019. It was further agreed that law and regulations need to be amended to require registration of all births irrespective of the parents’ documentation and/or legal status. On 28 November, UNHCR in South Sudan convened a roundtable discussion on statelessness with government officials, UN agencies and civil society in order to move towards the development of a National Action Plan on Statelessness. The event resulted in an agreement on an outline of the National Action Plan, which includes selected priority actions from the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness relevant to the South Sudanese context. From 28 to 30 November, UNHCR and the Government of South Africa convened a regional Expert Meeting near Johannesburg on “The Eradication of Statelessness in the SADC Region”. The meeting gathered representatives from SADC, civil society, and all SADC member States. Building on the 2017 Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa Ministerial recommendations, participants discussed best practices and challenges in the region, and reviewed a draft declaration and action plan on statelessness that will be submitted to governments and SADC for further consideration. On 19 November, UNHCR organized a seminar in Madrid, Spain, on “Practices and Challenges in the Sphere of Statelessness”. The event gathered over 100 participants, among them representatives of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the European Network on Statelessness, NGOs and UNHCR. The participants discussed the existing statelessness determination procedure and ways to improve it, as well as the way forward to address statelessness in Spain, in light of the High-Level Event in 2019. On December 1, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, in partnership with UN Women and UNHCR, convened a round table on Gender and Nationality in South Africa. The round table gathered representatives of governments and civil society from Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Participants reviewed international and regional standards, discussed best practices, and developed recommendations on how to ensure gender equality in nationality laws. On 21 November, the Ministry of Justice of Guinea Bissau approved a National Action Plan on Statelessness. On 24 November, the Government of the Republic of Congo launched a multisectoral Statelessness Taskforce to develop a country’s National Action Plan to end statelessness, in line with Commitment No. 11 of the Brazzaville Declaration of ICGLR Member States on the Eradication of Statelessness. On 11 and 12 December, UNHCR and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) hosted an inaugural strategic workshop on statelessness and legal identity documentation in N’Djamena, Chad, with representatives from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and São Tomé and Príncipe. The event boosted engagement on the #IBelong Campaign in the region ahead of the 2019 High-Level Event on Statelessness. On 28 November, the Government of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia hosted a high-level event in Skopje to address issues related to birth and civil registration. The event was supported by the OSCE Mission and UNHCR’s partner organization Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA). UNHCR, OSCE and MYLA agreed to work towards a legal analysis to identify gaps in the existing legal framework. The Prime Minister together with the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, stated that during the first quarter of 2019, the Government will outline its preferred model and proposals for amendments of the legislation. 6

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