alert them to the wealth of recommendations and best practices that can prevent statelessness. The organization encourages parliamentarians to adopt nationality legislation that will help to eliminate statelessness while securing the right to a nationality for those deprived of it, and helps to ensure that treaties that address dual or multiple nationalities do not inadvertently create statelessness. Good practices: Sri Lanka Most of the labour force that produces Sri Lanka’s world-renowned tea are of Indian origin. Known officially as “Tamils of Recent Indian Origin,” but more commonly referred to as “Up-Country Tamils,” these labourers are descendants of persons brought from India to what was then Ceylon by the British administration that ruled the island nation between 1815 and 1948. From 1948, when Sri Lanka w\on its independence, until 1984, various Indo-Sri Lankan agreements determined the legal status of these labourers. Some Up-Country Tamils were granted citizenship by one or the other country through legislative or bilateral arrangements. However, many had no nationality, and thus no basic rights; some did not even have access to the process of acquiring Sri Lankan or Indian citizenship. In 1982, the Government of India informed the Government of Sri Lanka that it considered previous agreements concerning the Up-Country Tamils no longer binding because the implementation period of those agreements had expired. In effect, from that date, any Up-Country Tamil who was stateless was unable to acquire a nationality. The Ceylon Workers Congress, a trade union and political party, lobbied for years for the rights of Up-Country Tamils. In response, the Sri Lankan parliament drafted and, in October 2003, unanimously approved the “Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act”. The Act automatically grants citizenship to any person of Indian origin who: – has been a permanent resident of Sri Lanka since 30 October 1964; or – is a descendent, resident in Sri Lanka, of a person who has been a permanent resident of Sri Lanka since 30 October 1964. After the Act was adopted, the Office of the Commissioner General, UNHCR, and the Ceylon Workers Congress began disseminating information on the new law. The Tamil, English, and Sinhalese media ran newspaper articles and broadcast radio and television spots with information on the law and how and where people could apply for citizenship. The administrative procedures, designed by the Minister of the Interior and the Controller of the Immigration Department, are simple, brief, and fair. Two different procedures were established for stateless persons: – De facto stateless persons, usually holders of Indian passports that had expired after India’s 1982 declaration, are required to state their intention to voluntarily acquire Sri Lankan citizenship. This is usually done by the 46