Background
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supporting community outreach and mobile teams to ensure that stateless persons
have access to nationality procedures and documents; and
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strengthening integration efforts, national-reconciliation activities and confidencebuilding initiatives.
Below, some key elements in the successful resolution of situations of statelessness are
highlighted through examples of good practices in a number of countries.
LAW OR POLICY REFORM ENABLING AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION OF NATIONALITY
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Sri Lanka – statelessness following migration and State succession
Stateless Hill Tamils acquired nationality through law reform. A concerted nationality
campaign helped almost 200,000 members of the community to acquire proof of
their new nationality.
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Bangladesh – statelessness following migration and State succession
Statelessness among members of the Urdu-speaking, or “Bihari”, community was
resolved after Government policy was changed to accommodate a High Court ruling
that recognized this group as nationals.
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Kyrgyzstan – gradual resolution of statelessness following State succession
Implementation of an innovative citizenship law has led to the complete resolution of
statelessness among former Soviet citizens and more recent arrivals.
LAW OR POLICY REFORM ENABLING ACQUISITION OF NATIONALITY BY
REGISTRATION
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Brazil – statelessness caused by a legal obstacle preventing children born to
nationals abroad from acquiring nationality
A sustained advocacy campaign by civil society, the media and politicians resulted in
constitutional reform which enabled stateless children born abroad to Brazilian
parents to acquire Brazilian nationality upon registration at a Brazilian consulate.
U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S
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