Campaigns to reform discriminatory nationality laws in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen are yet to achieve their desired results. Each of these countries presents particular political barriers, such as the Palestinian question in Jordan, the sectarian balance in Lebanon, political reform efforts and tensions on the role of religion in society in Syria and Yemen. Representatives from Yemen spoke about the importance of broadening solidarity networks and engaging with a wider range of stakeholders, including religious leaders, men’s associations and prominent figures in politics and royalty. Syrian groups forged links with members of State media. These strategies however, were the subject of much debate as participants felt that these networking strategies were both country and context-specific. To date, NGOs have approached advocacy to reform nationality laws from the perspectives of gender equality, women’s empowerment and development. This roundtable was the first opportunity for UNHCR to explain its statelessness mandate to a cross-section of women’s rights advocates in the region and discuss how statelessness concerns can be incorporated into their law reform campaigns. Roundtable participants identified three key areas where more work could be undertaken to contribute to ongoing campaigns to resolve the issue of gender discrimination in nationality laws and statelessness in the MENA region:  Statelessness awareness-raising – There is a need for UNHCR, and other actors working on issues of nationality and statelessness, to raise greater awareness of statelessness in the MENA region. Until this meeting, almost none of the NGO representatives had heard of the statelessness conventions or knew of UNHCR’s mandate responsibility for statelessness. Furthermore, none had yet incorporated statelessness arguments into their reform campaigns.  Collaboration with UNHCR - Roundtable participants expressed enthusiasm and a need for greater engagement and cooperation between UNHCR country offices in the region with civil society and women’s groups on the issue of statelessness and its links to gender discrimination. Country-specific roundtables, such as this one, to bring together affected women, civil society actors and UNHCR were recommended as a positive way to build capacity and develop comprehensive and effective national campaigns to end gender discrimination and reduce and prevent statelessness.  Improved data and research – Participants expressed the need for more accurate statistics of the number of stateless persons as a result of gender discriminatory nationality laws in order to strengthen and broaden their own advocacy efforts. Where numbers are available, they are based on estimates rather than as a result of any actual mapping of populations. Research on the nationality campaign conducted by CRTD-A and its partner organizations in the region should be collated and disseminated and should include detailed studies on a country-by-country basis to examine the specific gender discrimination issues, steps taken to address these issues and action still to be taken. 3