Regional Workshop on Statelessness and the Rights of Women and Children The third reform aimed at achieving gender equality in nationality law. Previously the law allowed only male citizens to convey citizenship; in contrast, the new law provides that either the mother or the father can pass on Indonesian nationality to their children by descent. This change significantly lowers the risk of statelessness among children of Indonesian mothers whose fathers are non-nationals. It is important to note that Indonesia is not alone in improving the gender equality of its nationality law. For example, in 2004, Singapore amended its Constitution to enable women to convey nationality to children born abroad, thereby ensuring that its legal system offers both women and men full and equal rights with respect to transmitting citizenship by descent. In addition to granting additional social and legal protection to Singaporean women who have children abroad — and assuring that these children will not be stateless —these reforms also allowed Singapore to lift its reservation to CEDAW Article 9(2). This provision requires that States parties adopt genderneutral policies with respect to the acquisition of nationality by descent. Reduction: Resolving situation of stateless people Reduction of statelessness is achieved through granting or confirming a nationality to stateless individuals and documenting them as nationals of a particular State. Resolving current cases of statelessness also serves as a preventive measure for following generations who can subsequently acquire the nationality of their parents by descent. The good practices in the reduction of statelessness by ASEAN Member States discussed during the Workshop included the restoration of nationality to former citizens, the registration of persons who lack documents to confirm nationality and the naturalization of longterm residents. Some of the former Cambodian refugees who received their citizenship certificates at a ceremony held in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2010. ©UNHCR/A. T. Lieu 14 Viet Nam has led efforts to restore nationality to former citizens. A significant number of