UNHCR’s Global Action Plan to End Statelessness advocacy for additional accessions to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions, along with support for the effective introduction of their provisions into national law.10 Moreover, UNHCR promotes the strengthening of nationality legislation in line with all relevant international standards, including in relation to preventing arbitrary deprivations of nationality. Collectively, UNHCR’s efforts in these areas—increasing access to birth registration, supporting effective implementation of dedicated safeguards against statelessness for vulnerable children, and promoting women’s nationality rights—also contribute to the broader goal of Action 2 of the GAP, namely, ensuring that no child is ever born stateless. In line with Action 10 on the GAP, UNHCR is also working in partnership with States, civil society organisations and scholars to improve qualitative and quantitative data on statelessness and documentation issues to strengthen programming and advocacy. Action 2 of the GAP addresses the need to resolve existing situations of statelessness. While the MENA region is home to several historically stateless populations, the region is also notable for achieving substantial reductions in statelessness, including the two largest resolutions of statelessness reported globally in 2010 and 2011, respectively in Iraq and Syria.11 To support continued progress in identifying solutions for stateless people, UNHCR works with States and civil society partners in the region to strengthen the implementation of existing procedures for stateless people to acquire nationality, and promotes legislative reform to build a stronger foundation for the reduction of statelessness across the region. Certain countries have adopted national strategies or inter-agency structures to address statelessness. In Lebanon, for instance, a national Working Group on Statelessness brings together the Ministries of Justice, Interior and Municipality, Public Health, Social Affairs, Education and Higher Education, together with the civil society organisation Frontiers Ruwad as well as UNHCR and other UN agencies. In 2016, the Working Group focused on ways to improve birth registration in Lebanon as a tool to prevent statelessness, including through the development of a national awareness-raising campaign. In Iraq, UNHCR has developed a multi-faceted strategy that prioritizes the reduction of statelessness, livelihoods support for extremely vulnerable stateless persons Protecting the nationality and legal identity of children gives them a secure start in life, a stronger basis for the protection of their rights and the foundation to reach their full potential. Photo: UNHCR / Jordi Matas 10 Presently, Algeria and Israel are parties to the 1954 Convention, whereas Libya and Tunisia have acceded to both the 1954 and 1961 Conventions. In Iraq, over 110,000 stateless people acquired nationality on the basis of a new Nationality Law adopted in 2006. See Article 17, Law No. 26 of 2006, 7 March 2006, at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4b1e364c2.html. In Syria, Decree 49 of 2011 allowed for more than 69,000 stateless Kurds to acquire nationality. 11 8