5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS “The issue of statelessness has been left to fester in the shadows for far too long. It is time to take the necessary steps to rid the world of a bureaucratic malaise that is, in reality, not so difficult to resolve. It is simply a question of political will and legislative energy.” António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights191 5.1 Conclusions 140. In 2006, UNHCR’s Executive Committee issued a Conclusion on the identification, prevention and reduction of statelessness, as well as on the protection of stateless persons.192 UNHCR has aimed for improvements in these four specific areas and urges States to do the same. 141. Firstly, as concerns the situation in the Netherlands, the research shows that the matter of identification may be the most problematic area. Sound policies on the prevention and reduction of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons are predicated upon knowledge of the size and characteristics of this group. At present, information on either is limited. This report’s statistical analysis reveals that often no distinction is made between stateless persons and those whose nationality is unknown. The statistics that are available are therefore not a reflection of the true extent of statelessness in the Netherlands. No uniformity exists between various institutions in the way statelessness is registered. Thousands of people carry the label “nationality unknown” for many years and few attempts are made to resolve their situation. The common practice of labelling individuals as of unknown nationality because they cannot live up to the GBA’s administrative requirements to be registered as a stateless person, precludes the rights enshrined in the 1954 Convention from being activated. The Netherlands is party to this convention, thereby acknowledging stateless persons’ special protection needs, but has not yet put a statelessness determination procedure in place. Without a clear and consistent means of establishing statelessness, individuals may not be accorded the rights to which they are entitled. Currently, the GBA operational guideline does not mention statelessness and consequently does not contain any guidance on how to determine statelessness. 56 191  . Guterres and L. Arbour, “The Hidden World of Stateless People”, United Nations Office of the A High Commisssioner for Human Rights (28 November 2007), available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=4964&LangID=E [accessed 23 September 2011]. 192  NHCR, “Conclusion on Identification, Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection U of Stateless Persons”, 6 October 2006, No. 106 (LVII) - 2006. Mapping statelessness