equality and women’s empowerment are essential components of human development and basic human rights. A young Nepali activist, Neha Gurung, shared the impact of statelessness on her life; her statelessness resulted from her mother’s inability to confer nationality on her at birth. She and her mother powerfully called for all countries to finally live up to commitments to gender equality made long ago. deadline, reported on the recent legal amendments to ensure universal birth registration, and committed to adopt a Statelessness Determination Procedure (SDP) by the end of 2020. In view of the commitment to establish an SDP, UNHCR organized a webinar for government officials on 21 July to present global best practices. From 14 to 17 July, Thailand’s Ministry of Interior undertook a visit to Trat, a province bordering Cambodia, to evaluate local civil registration services in remote areas. The delegation met with local civil registrars and members of the population. A number of gaps were identified and the findings will feed into a set of recommendations to improve the civil registration and vital statistics system in Thailand. On 24 September, UNHCR convened a global retreat on statelessness to strengthen strategic coordination among a diverse set of actors including representatives of civil society, international and regional organizations. Over 100 participants discussed key objectives and potential areas of joint work for the remainder of 2020 and 2021. In September, the Department of Justice of the Philippines and UNHCR conducted a series of training sessions on international legal standards on statelessness for the Philippine House of Representatives and the Senate. On 27 August, the European Network on Statelessness launched new country briefings on Austria, Czech Republic and Spain and updated ten country briefings as part of their annual Statelessness Index updates. These country briefings provide a short summary of each country’s law, policy and practice in relation to statelessness and set out recommendations to governments on how to improve the protection of stateless people and prevent and reduce statelessness in their national context. On 8 October, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation launched the Atlas der Staatenlosen (Statelessness Atlas) at a press conference in Berlin. Using 19 country examples, the Atlas describes the causes and consequences of statelessness around the world and gives an insight into the situation of stateless persons. Newspapers and the national radio covered the event and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation developed a video to accompany the launch of the publication. The English version will be launched on November 10th and a French version should also be available by then. On 26 August, the Minister of Interior of South Sudan endorsed a National Action Plan to End Statelessness (NAP). The NAP includes the accession of South Sudan to the UN Statelessness Conventions and reform of the nationality law to bring it in line with international standards on statelessness. On 20 July, the National Commission for Refugees of Burkina Faso (CONAREF) convened to discuss the legal framework for the introduction of a Statelessness Determination Procedure. On 10 September, the 5th annual meeting of the Central Asian Network on Statelessness (CANS) took place. CANS members shared updates and progress in terms of efforts to end statelessness in Central Asia. NGOs from Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, the European Network on Statelessness and the Statelessness Network for Asia Pacific also participated in the meeting and shared their experiences working to end statelessness in the context of COVID-19. On 7 July, UNHCR and the Government of Turkmenistan organized a virtual national roundtable on the implementation of the National Action Plan to End Statelessness in Turkmenistan (2019-2024). The event was attended by Members of Parliament, senior government officials and civil society organizations. The Turkmen officials emphasized the importance of eradicating statelessness by the 2024 2