Foreword the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Similarly, only Afghanistan has signed onto the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. While the issues covered in the report are diverse and vary across and within countries, the findings of The South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 highlight common patterns and, in particular, the central role of discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity, language, and other factors in each context. These matters also have important regional and cross-border dynamics in South Asia, animated by a history of colonialism and conflict, as well as more recent inter-state relations. Such a lens is particularly useful as we seen an increasing politicization of minority rights protection in South Asia, particularly concerning the movement and protection of refugees suffering religious persecution. As the experiences of minorities show, in order to achieve the goal to eradicate statelessness which guides the UNHCR’s #iBelong campaign, more attention must be directed towards understanding the circumstances which obstruct their right to nationality—and particularly the time has come to recognise that statelessness is mainly, disproportionally a minority issue around the world—if one truly hopes to be able to achieve the eradication of this blight. I believe that this report, led by an initiative of minority rights activists and researchers from across South Asia, is an important step in this direction and a reminder of the critical role that minority-led and focused civil society has in it. Fernand de Varennes UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues ix