UNHCR, Statistical Reporting, and the Representation of Stateless People 87 resolved situations of statelessness. Rather, Teh’s case demonstrates that legal reform – UNHCR’s go-to solution – may not be sufficient. counting and miscounting stateless people Within UNHCR, statistical reporting now focused on de jure statelessness, as recorded in the 2015 Statistical Yearbook.76 No longer did UNHCR speak of de facto statelessness and those with indeterminate nationality. The figures presented, however, raised many questions about the methodologies used and the veracity of their sources. Until 2017, UNHCR’s formal position was that there were an estimated ten million stateless people in the world.77 This number had come down from twelve million over the previous five years, with little explanation. Even though UNHCR recognized that its estimates were provisional, it continued to rely on them, amalgamating data sources and rough estimates. In addition to their program of identifying and estimating the global population of stateless people,78 the logic of reporting, of focusing on more closely defined categories of stateless groups, and the wider mandate that seeks to reduce and prevent statelessness, gave rise to a new ambition: UNHCR was to end statelessness. The Politicization of Data With glossy photographs reminiscent of Benetton adverts, UNHCR launched a 2014 campaign, #IBelong, to end statelessness within a decade – this, although its reporting on statelessness was still a work in progress, and it did not have reliable baseline data on the scale of the problem. Benetton eventually appeared as UNHCR’s formal partner, with its logo at the foot of UNHCR’s website. UNHCR also set unrealistic targets, including the collection of ten million signatures from the public in support of ten actions deemed essential to end statelessness.79 By August 2020, the #IBelong campaign had secured 98,296 signatures – just under one percent of its target – and was attracting fewer than twenty-five signatures a month.80 UNHCR published quarterly updates on the #IBelong campaign but, to date, there has been no independent assessment, no performance or output based evaluations, and no recognition that UNHCR and its partners are failing to meet their targets. Instead, UNHCR has called attention to the many recent pledges made by member states that include introducing statelessness determination procedures, 76 UNHCR, UNHCR Statistical Yearbook 2015, p. 4. See UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2016 (June 19, 2017), www.unhcr.org/ dach/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/06/2016_Global_Trends_WEB-embargoed.pdf. 78 UNHCR, Global Action Plan to End Statelessness (2014), www.refworld.org/docid/545b47d64 .html. 79 See UNHCR, “ibelong,” www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. 80 See UNHCR, “Sign the Open Letter,” www.unhcr.org/ibelong/sign-the-open-letter/. 77 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914994 Published online by Cambridge University Press