UNHCR, Statistical Reporting, and the Representation of Stateless People 75 refugees, especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, but until 2003, it was also operating under a temporary mandate renewable every five years. Over the past fifteen years, UNHCR has sought to bring statelessness more prominently within its remit.14 A background paper prepared by Hugh Massey in 2010 to identify UNHCR’s responsibilities and set out the basis for more consistent operational definitions states that UNHCR “tended to assume that it had a mandate for de facto stateless persons who are not refugees just as much as it has a mandate for de jure stateless persons who are not refugees.”15 UNHCR now operates a statelessness unit that supports a range of field activities and, since 2006, has required its country offices to include stateless people in their reports. It has published papers on statelessness;16 has assisted many countries with surveys, registration campaigns, and population censuses; and has also provided technical advice. As the number of recognized refugees stabilized and then started to fall in the twenty-first century, interest in the phenomenon of statelessness rose, and UNHCR emerged as the most vocal advocate on this issue. One core responsibility of UNHCR is to promote legal reform to address gaps in nationality and related legislation, including pressing states to accede to the Statelessness Conventions. UNHCR points to some achievements here, recording that in 2020 some twelve countries took steps to remove gender discrimination from their nationality laws and forty-nine states acceded to the two conventions on statelessness.17 In 2009, UNHCR published a policy paper to inform statelessness determination procedures and provide a mechanism for analyzing situations where persons are stateless or are at risk of becoming stateless.18 It has since published handbooks and operational guides. UNHCR now routinely provides reports and recommendations for the Universal Periodic Review on the topic and covers statelessness in its Global Appeals and Global Reports. It has also published educational tools19 and includes statelessness in its flagship report, The State of the World’s Refugees.20 14 See Conclusion on Identification, Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection of Stateless Persons No. 106, UNHCR ExCom., U.N. Doc. A/AC.96/1035 (October 6, 2006). 15 UNHCR and De Facto Statelessness, Hugh Massey, LPPR/2010/01 (April 2010), www.refworld .org/docid/4bbf387d2.html, p. ii. 16 See UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 3: The Status of Stateless Persons at the National Level, HCR/GS/12/03 (July 17, 2012), www.refworld.org/docid/5005520f2.html. 17 See “How UNHCR Helps Stateless People,” www.unhcr.org/uk/how-unhcr-helps-statelesspeople.html. 18 UNHCR, “Statelessness: An Analytical Framework for Prevention, Reduction, and Protection,” Global Report 2018 (2019), www.refworld.org/docid/49a28afb2.html. 19 UNHCR, A Guide to Teaching on Statelessness (September 2010), www.refworld.org/docid/ 4d7f5f982.html; UNHCR, Self-Study Module on Statelessness (October 1, 2012), www.refworld .org/docid/50b899602.html. 20 UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees: In Search of Solidarity (2012), www.refworld.org/ docid/5100fec32.html. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914994 Published online by Cambridge University Press