Acquisition of nationality through naturalization Viet Nam • The revision of the 1998 Nationality Law in 2008 created a new Article 22 for simplifying conditions for the naturalization of the stateless former Cambodian refugees in the country. • On 20 March 2020, the Prime Minister of Viet Nam issued Decision No. 402/QDTTg to implement the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which includes a commitment to undertake ambitious activities to address Statelessness: acceding to the Statelessness Conventions by 2025, establishing a statelessness determination procedure, strengthening access to civil registration and wider commitments to improve the identification and reduction of Statelessness and protect the rights of stateless persons. • High-level outreach by UNHCR raised awareness of the statelessness issue among other UN agencies and the diplomatic community in Viet Nam, helping to build consensus that resolution of the problem was a priority. • UNHCR has provided technical and operational support to the Government through workshops to facilitate the naturalization of stateless Cambodians, spontaneous migrants from Lao PDR and Cambodia and other stateless people and people with undetermined nationality residing in border areas. These activities have helped to develop an Operational Plan that proposed relaxation of the naturalization criteria for this group. • Examples of the relaxed naturalization requirements included: acceptance of all former Cambodian refugees as stateless (ending the requirement for individual statements relinquishing former nationality); acceptance of sworn testimony on the date and place of birth in place of the requirement for birth certificates; and waiver of the naturalization fee. • UNHCR conducted a comprehensive assessment of gaps in Viet Nam’s nationality laws that gave rise to statelessness. This led to the identification of statelessness among Vietnamese women with failed marriages who renounced their nationality upon marrying foreigners without acquiring a new nationality as another issue in need of resolution. • Raising awareness of international standards on the prevention of statelessness helped spur the Vietnamese Government to adopt the revised 2008 Nationality Law, which included numerous safeguards against statelessness. U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S 55