Foreword Since the first edition of the handbook, Nationality and statelessness was published in 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) have strengthened their partnership in support of efforts to prevent new cases of statelessness and to resolve long-standing statelessness situations. That handbook (the second edition of which was published in 2014) focused largely on the international legal framework for the right to a nationality and for the reduction of statelessness. It also highlighted the role that parliamentarians can play in adopting legislation consistent with that framework and in promoting accession by their States to the two United Nations statelessness conventions. This new handbook goes a step further, in providing examples of model domestic law provisions in a number of thematic areas relevant to the elimination of statelessness. The impact of statelessness on those it affects cannot be overstated. Statelessness typically leaves people unable to enjoy basic rights that most people take for granted, including the ability to go to school, see a doctor, get a job, open a bank account, vote, get married, and pass on nationality to their children. It can lead to desperation making victims vulnerable to extreme forms of exploitation and abuse. Statelessness affecting particular groups within communities can also impair social and economic development and lead to tensions that result in violent conflict and forced displacement. In 2015, UNHCR, IPU and the Parliament of South Africa co-hosted a conference, Everyone’s right to a nationality that brought together parliamentarians from around the world and helped raise awareness of the solutions to statelessness. Since then, both organizations have worked together to ensure that parliamentarians benefit from regular updates on the remarkable progress in addressing statelessness that has been achieved since UNHCR launched its 10-year #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024. This includes 20 new accessions to the United Nations statelessness conventions, over a dozen relevant law reforms, and the grant of nationality to hundreds of thousands of formerly stateless persons. As the mid-point of the #IBelong Campaign approaches in 2019, UNHCR and the IPU remain committed to supporting parliamentarians whose governments wish to rid the world of the blight of statelessness once and for all. We hope that this handbook will provide them with the practical guidance they need to support law reforms that help ensure that no child is born stateless, that men and women have an equal ability to pass nationality to their children, that no one is arbitrarily deprived of nationality, and that stateless persons are identified and their naturalization is facilitated. We look forward to promoting this handbook – together with States, other international organizations, civil society and other stakeholders – as a tool to facilitate efforts that will accelerate the eradication of statelessness by 2024. Filippo Grandi United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Martin Chungong Secretary General Inter-Parliamentary Union 5