214 Nash states have introduced a dedicated statelessness determination procedure to enable them to fulfil their obligations in practice.4 The accession rate to the 1961 Convention leaves more to be desired with sixteen European states5 still not parties to this instrument which seeks to ­prevent and reduce statelessness. It remains an unacceptable phenomenon that many children are still born stateless in today’s Europe. A recent in-depth study by EUDO Citizenship reveals that several states still have nationality legislation on their statute books that either causes or perpetuates statelessness.6 In other countries statelessness arises from a failure to ensure comprehensive birth or civil registration – particularly in South Eastern Europe.7 Mean­ while, in Estonia and Latvia hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians are still denied effective access to nationality and live in a perpetual state of non-citizenship.8 In terms of institutional responses to the problem of statelessness, the Council of Europe has for several decades played an active role in adopting instruments and recommendations.9 In recent years UNHCR too has noticeably increased its regional activities commensurate with a greater global attention to this part of its mandate. This concentration of effort and resources leading up to and beyond its 2011 Ministerial meeting in Geneva, and the related State pledges, has achieved impressive results.10 This has also increased opportunities for effective collaboration with NGO partners. However, still somewhat trailing in the wake of these developments has been the response, 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Those with procedures are France, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Spain and the United Kingdom. States yet to accede are Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. Olivier W Vonk, Maarten P Vink, and Gérard-René de Groot, ‘Protection against Statelessness Trends and Regulations in Europe’ (May 2013) <http://eudocitizenship.eu/ images/docs/eudocit_vink_degroot_statelessness_final.pdf> accessed 19 August 2013. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘Report on Statelessness in South Eastern Europe’ (September 2011) <http://www.refworld.org/docid/514d715f2.html <accessed 19 August 2013. See Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Governments Should Act in the Best Interests of Stateless Children’ <http://humanrightscomment.org/2013/01/15/ governments-should-act-in-the-best-interest-of-stateless-children/> accessed 19 August 2013. See for full details of the Council of Europe’s activities in the field of nationality <http:// www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/nationality/default_en.asp> accessed 22 August 2013. For a detailed summary of recent progress see UN High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘Note on statelessness’ (4 June 2013) EC/64/SC/CRP.11 <http://www.refworld.org/docid/51d2a8884 .html> accessed 23 August 2013. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 212-222