EC/64/SC/CRP.11 (b) Promoting accession 10. The relatively low number of States party to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions has been a major weakness of the international legal framework on statelessness. As reported in the previous Note on Statelessness, at the beginning of 2011 there were 65 parties to the 1954 Convention and 37 parties to the 1961 Convention. Promotion of accession to the two Conventions has thus remained a major focus. The Office actively promoted accession to the 1954 Convention in 67 States, up from 39 during the previous two-year period. UNHCR also intensified efforts to promote the 1961 Convention: It did so in 86 counties, up from 55 during 2009-2011. In addition to advocacy letters to selected governments and widespread dissemination of brochures on the content of the Conventions, UNHCR’s promotion activities included analysis of compatibility between national legislation and the Conventions, roundtable meetings with governments to discuss the impact of accession and facilitation of information-gathering visits to States which were already parties. 11. Resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, and the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, all called upon States to consider accession. At the 2012 United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on the Rule of Law, European Union Member States which had not yet done so pledged to become parties to the 1954 Convention and to consider accession to the 1961 Convention. The UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies made frequent recommendations to States to accede in the context of State reporting procedures. In addition, an increasing number of States which are already party to one or both Conventions are calling upon others to become parties. This was most evident in the context of the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council, whereby a total of 31 recommendations to accede were made to specific States. Five States accepted these recommendations. 12. The result of these developments was an unprecedented increase in the number of States parties to the two Conventions. There were 26 accessions by 17 States during the two-year period covered by this report, with 14 accessions to the 1961 Convention and 12 to the 1954 Convention. This is more than twice as many accessions as during any previous two year period since the treaties were adopted. These developments underline a fundamental shift in attitude towards the issue of statelessness. 13. This trend is also demonstrated by the number of pledges relating to accession made by States during the Ministerial Intergovernmental Event, during which 32 States pledged to accede to the 1961 Convention and 22 to the 1954 Convention. There were pledges made by States in all regions of the world, albeit in lower numbers in Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa region. As of May 2013, 15 (or 28%) of these pledges had been implemented. (c) Promoting law reform and providing technical advice 14. Inadequate legislative provisions continued to create new cases of statelessness and posed obstacles to solutions. In numerous instances, nationality and related legislation were not compliant with either the 1961 Convention or with United Nations and regional human rights standards. The Office has therefore established a global strategic priority on the adoption of nationality laws that prevent and reduce statelessness. During 2011-2012 it promoted reform of nationality laws in 71 States and provided technical advice to 41 States, up from 23 in the previous reporting period. Notably, UNHCR provided technical advice on the drafting of nationality legislation for newly independent South Sudan and contributed to constitutional and law reform processes in a number of countries such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Latvia, Nepal, Tajikistan and Zambia. During the reporting period, a total of 14 States amended their nationality legislation to strengthen safeguards against statelessness. UNHCR observed several broad trends in nationality laws during this period, including removal of legal provisions leading to loss of nationality for residence 5