3 Regional Expert Roundtable Report “I had just one simple hope: that when I died I could get a death certificate, to prove that I ever existed.” Concerns Stateless people will find that their lack of any nationality has an impact on many aspects of their lives. Statelessness can obstruct access Sentiment expressed by a middle-aged to work, education and healthcare formerly stateless resident of Viet Nam as well as the ability to travel, own who acquired Vietnamese citizenship by naturalisation in July 2010. Now he will be property or get married. Statelessness able to get a death certificate, when the often leads to the political, social time comes. and economic marginalisation of the individuals concerned. This can also be detrimental to a person’s sense of identity and worth. Moreover, the immediate impact of statelessness extends beyond the stateless people themselves, to affect their families. For instance, without appropriate safeguards in place, statelessness and its accompanying hardships can be transmitted from parent to child. Statelessness can also have a broader impact on society as a whole, in particular because excluding an entire sector of the population may create social tension and significantly impair efforts to promote economic and social development. Moreover, statelessness may lead to forced displacement. A recent discussion with some of the formerly stateless residents of Viet Nam illustrates the true human impact. One young man, now 29 years of age, spent the first 27 years of his life without a nationality. Born in Viet Nam to a stateless father and Vietnamese mother, he described what life was like when he was stateless: “when I wanted a girlfriend and met her parents, they asked me who I was, why my name was strange and where my ID card was. Finally I met a girl I loved and her parents didn’t care about the ID card, but we couldn’t legally marry because I didn’t have the ID card”. Since acquiring citizenship two years ago through his mother, things have changed for him. “After I got citizenship, I could go for further study, I could get social insurance, I got promoted from accountant to chief accountant (in a private company) and I got a big raise. I was offered the promotion earlier, but under Viet Nam’s licensing regulations, non-citizens can’t be a chief accountant”. Building a response To build an effective response to statelessness, it is helpful to differentiate between four types of activity: identification, prevention, reduction and protection. Each of them has a different objective. This four-pillar approach greatly facilitated discussions at the Roundtable, although participants also rightly pointed out that there can be many linkages between the different pillars. This is not least because identification serves as an important foundation for constructing an effective response in terms of prevention, reduction and/or protection. ➢ Identification: What methods can be used to “map” the situation of stateless persons? ➢ Prevention: What can be done to avoid new cases of statelessness? ➢ Reduction: What measures can be taken to resolve existing cases of statelessness? ➢ Protection: What is needed to ensure that stateless persons enjoy their fundamental rights?