SOLVING STATELESSNESS Introduction Volker Türk When I addressed the first Global Forum on Statelessness in The Hague in 2014, I remarked that the event was a testament to how far we had come in our collective efforts to better understand and address the problem of statelessness. We had remarkable diversity among the over 300 participants present, and we all sensed a new dynamism that was already making a meaningful difference in stateless people’s lives. In the short time since then, the level of awareness and engagement to resolve statelessness has continued to increase substantially. The ‘#IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness’, launched by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in November 2014, was endorsed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in the same year. Major regional initiatives sprang up soon afterwards, including the Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action for Refugees, Displaced and Stateless Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on the Eradication of Statelessness covering West Africa, the first European Union Council Conclusions on Statelessness, and the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration on Civil Registration by 44 States in the Asia Pacific. A draft Protocol on the Right to Nationality to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and regional initiatives to address statelessness in other African sub-regions and in the Middle East and North Africa are also in progress. Also, in the time since the Campaign was launched, more than 85,000 people have signed the Open Letter to End Statelessness, including high-level supporters such as Louise Arbor, Angelique Kidjo, and Archbishop Desmund Tutu. More than ever before, there is more recognition of the problem and also a willingness to take action by policy-makers, parliamentarians, civil society groups, lawyers, journalists, and development actors, leading to tangible and sustainable solutions for stateless persons. For example, since the launch of the ‘#IBelong Campaign’, countries as diverse as Côte d’Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, and Thailand, have stepped up their efforts, which have resulted in the grant of nationality to many thousands of formerly stateless persons. Improvements to civil registration systems and in access to birth registration have 7