Stateless Persons efforts to resolve the situation, namely through the naturalization of a segment of the stateless group on the basis of a specially adopted decree. Some of the decrease in numbers comes as the result of forced displacement prompted by the conflict. A closer look at how the figure has shifted indicates that only around half of those who no longer appear in the statelessness statistics have acquired a nationality. The others remain stateless, but are now counted only as refugees. It is important to remember that for them and other groups of stateless refugees, as well as stateless persons of Palestinian origin, their statelessness is still a relevant fact with respect to their treatment under international law. For instance, safeguards on the avoidance of statelessness, such as those found in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, apply to all situations in which statelessness threatens. UNHCR’s mandate to prevent, reduce, and end statelessness extends to stateless refugees, as well. This speaks in favour of finding ways to include all stateless persons in some manner within global statistical reporting. 74 CONCLUSION The question of how many stateless persons there are in the world is not an easy one to answer. UNHCR reports at least 10 million persons under its statelessness mandate, of which it has been able to collate country-level statistics from different sources that account for 3.5 million persons. While the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion confirms that the figure of 3.5 million significantly under-represents the scale of the problem, it found estimates in other sources that would account for an additional approximately 2.5 million stateless persons. This figure includes, among others, an estimated 81,000 stateless persons in Bhutan, at least 60,000 in India, 80,000– 200,000 in Lebanon, over 500,000 currently unreported in Myanmar, 10,000– 100,000 in the United Arab Emirates, upwards of 86,000 in Uzbekistan, and 80,000–600,000 in Zimbabwe. 75 There are also approximately 2.1 million persons of Palestinian origin, who were never displaced from the West Bank or Gaza Strip and whose nationality status remains ambiguous in the absence of Palestinian nationality regulations. This brings the tally of stateless persons who are currently in some way statistically accounted for, or ‘visible’, to over eight million. The true number of stateless persons is likely to be significantly higher, due to the data gaps that were identified and could not be filled. There are several large-scale situations of statelessness that still entirely elude statistical coverage, such as India, Pakistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Further, it is likely that some of the low-end estimates are too conservative and do not represent the true scale of the problems. It is clear that UNHCR’s estimate of ‘at least 10 million’ persons exclusively under its statelessness protection mandate is well founded. There are also at least 1.5 million stateless refugees and a significant number of Palestinian refugees whose nationality status remains unclear (the majority falling under UNRWA’s mandate but some under UNHCR’s refugee mandate). When this is all tallied up, there are likely to be millions more stateless persons worldwide today. Despite the wider desk research, not all statistical gaps were able to be filled. These can only be closed through a holistic approach that invests substantial resources into counting the stateless; training people to do so accurately; conducting new field research and mapping exercises; and improving existing identification, survey, and data-collection methodologies. This section has highlighted some of the operational and methodological challenges that must be considered in the context of achieving a more comprehensive statistical picture of statelessness globally. It is important to remember that while the quest for clarity on the magnitude of statelessness is a fascinating, compelling, and useful one, it should not be all-consuming. Having comprehensive and accurate information about who is affected by statelessness, and where, is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Better data will undoubtedly help in the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness by 2024. But the priority needs to rest firmly with addressing, not just mapping, the issue. Ultimately, any statistical reporting on statelessness serves a wider purpose, increasing our understanding of the extent of the phenomenon. In turn, this allows us to make plans to address statelessness by protecting the stateless, preventing future statelessness, and reducing and ultimately ending all existing statelessness. • 74 For a further discussion of the drawbacks of boxing individuals into just one definitional category or another, see Amal de Chickera, A stateless person, a refugee and an irregular migrant walk into a bar… July 2014, available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/ blog/stateless-person-refugee-and-irregular-migrant-walk-bar%E2%80%A6 . 75 Note that the overall tally of 2.5 million is based on the lowest-end estimates and does not encompass any populations for which no estimates are available whatsoever. For a full presentation of these statistics, please see the report The World’s Stateless. UNHCR Statistical Yearbook 2013 47