EC/68/SC/CRP.13 April 2017, the Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia issued the Malaysian Indian Blueprint, which aims to “resolve stateless and documentation issues” of persons of Indian descent living in Malaysia, with a priority on children and youth. 5. In the Russian Federation, the reported number of stateless persons decreased due to acquisition or confirmation of nationality from 113,474 in 2014 to 90,771 at the end of 2016. Reduction efforts also continued in Central Asia. From 2014 to 2016, Kyrgyzstan registered some 12,000 persons and provided nearly 9,000 individuals with citizenship documentation, in line with its national action plan to end statelessness. In Tajikistan, 8,000 cases of statelessness were resolved during this same period. In December 2016, 1,381 persons were naturalized in Turkmenistan by Presidential decree. 6. In Côte d’Ivoire, a special procedure in place from 2014 to 2016 allowed 123,810 individuals to apply for Ivorian nationality by declaration. The processing of these applications has been delayed due to gaps in administrative capacity, but as of the end of 2016, approximately 11,800 persons had received nationality certificates, roughly half of whom were previously stateless. Ongoing efforts are needed for the remaining stateless population and for comprehensive law reform to ensure a path to nationality. In Kenya, the Makonde, a previously stateless ethnic minority group, were officially recognized as the 43rd tribe of the country and were promised citizenship at a ceremony hosted by President Uhuru Kenyatta in February 2017. Some 1,496 Makonde have received citizenship certificates as part of this ongoing process. 7. By November 2015, some 12,000 individuals in the Dominican Republic who were eligible for restoration of nationality through law 169-14 (“group A”) had obtained their civil documents. UNHCR will continue to collaborate closely with the authorities to support the acceleration of this process. B. Promoting law reform and providing technical advice to prevent statelessness and to protect stateless persons 8. Nationality laws and practices in a number of States have continued to render children and adults stateless. Promoting law reform and building administrative capacity therefore remained high priorities for the Office, in line with the “Global action plan”. During the reporting period, several States undertook law and policy reform to prevent statelessness, and supported by UNHCR, a number of States adopted or are developing national action plans. Several States took steps to establish statelessness determination procedures and protection regimes for stateless persons in a migratory context, and UNHCR provided technical assistance and advice to a majority of States where reform was adopted or is in progress. 9. In October 2016, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security issued a new instruction to the immigration authorities to allow all stateless children born in Norway to apply for and acquire Norwegian citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. A new Constitutional Law on Citizenship adopted by Tajikistan in August 2015 provides Tajik citizenship to all children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless, or to children abroad who have at least one Tajik parent. In the Philippines, a highprofile Supreme Court decision in March 2016 determined that foundlings 2 should be considered natural-born citizens. In Italy, a decision by a civil court in Rome in 2016 now facilitates the acquisition of citizenship by stateless Roma born in Italy. In January 2017, 2 4 The term “foundlings” refers to children found abandoned in the territory of a State.