International engagement and technical assistance to promote reform to address statelessness Once the main statelessness situations in Viet Nam had been identified, the next step was to seek reform of the nationality law and related policies. This was achieved in part through the discreet but significant engagement of the international community with the Vietnamese Government. UNHCR played a central and consistent role in channelling technical advice and political encouragement to this end. The period 2006-2008 presented a particular watershed. In 2006, UNHCR undertook high-level outreach with the Vietnamese Government to raise awareness on statelessness, including through letters from UNHCR’s Regional Bureau Director, Assistant High Commissioner – Protection, and the High Commissioner. UNHCR successfully placed statelessness on the agendas not only of the international diplomatic community in Viet Nam but also of other UN agencies operating in the country. As a result, talking points encouraging the Government to resolve statelessness were included in the brief of the United Nations Secretary-General when he visited the country in May 2006. The same year, the Vietnamese Government expressed its renewed resolve to naturalize the stateless former Cambodian refugees. This triggered a second phase of UNHCR engagement at a more technical and operational level, with a series of workshops and meetings between UNHCR and government stakeholders. Several meetings were held in 2006, but a breakthrough came at a multi-stakeholder workshop in November 2007. Participants in this workshop identified obstacles that prevented stateless Cambodian refugees from benefitting from the ordinary naturalization procedures available under Vietnamese law and suggested the adoption of exceptional procedures to overcome these challenges. This workshop concluded with the development of an Operational Plan for naturalizing stateless Cambodian refugees. The plan was approved by Viet Nam’s Deputy Prime Minister on 4 December 2007. This paved the way for a series of subsequent meetings in 2008 of a Working Group created to implement the Operational Plan. The group was composed of officials from the Vietnamese ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Public Security as well as the Office of the Government and Office of the President of State.42 Policy reform to reduce statelessness among former Cambodian refugees According to the Vietnamese nationality law at the time, applicants for naturalization were required to produce the following: proof of renunciation of foreign nationality, a birth certificate, a curriculum vitae, a judicial background certificate, a certificate of proficiency in the Vietnamese language, a certificate of continuous residence in Viet Nam for a certain period, information on the applicant’s domicile/occupation/income, and funds in payment of an processing fee. But most of the stateless former Cambodian refugees could not meet these requirements. Having fled Cambodia more than three decades earlier, this population had become aged; many were also illiterate and indigent. Given the circumstances under which they fled Cambodia, most did not have personal documentation, such as birth certificates. The greatest obstacle, however, was the requirement for proof of renunciation of foreign nationality. Some individuals had attempted to approach the Cambodian Government on this point. Although Cambodia did not recognize the former refugees as Cambodian citizens, it refused to issue documents confirming that they had relinquished their former nationality, as required by the Vietnamese law. The Operational Plan provided solutions to all of these obstacles to naturalization. Regarding the requirement to prove renunciation of foreign nationality, the Vietnamese Government initiated bilateral discussions with its Cambodian counterpart to seek certification that all those in this group were not considered Cambodian nationals.43 The Cambodian Government responded that it had no records of these people and confirmed it did not consider them to be Cambodian nationals. The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded that 42 The Working Group designated relevant authorities at both the central and local levels in Ho Chi Minh City and the two provinces of Binh Doung and Binh Phuoc, where stateless Cambodian refugees continued to reside in the former UNHCR camps. 43 This was pursued during the annual meeting between the foreign ministries of Cambodia and Viet Nam in 2007, where the Vietnamese Government inquired about the Cambodian Government’s position vis-à-vis the Cambodian refugee population in Viet Nam. 33 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS