On 10 September UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, jointly with the Government of Turkmenistan, organized in the hybrid format the International Conference on Statelessness Eradication in Central Asia aimed at sharing best practices between countries in the region on resolving the issue of statelessness and reviewing international safeguards against it.
The conference allowed Central Asian states to take stock of achievements, exchange good models and focus on the remaining gaps in the sphere of statelessness and required steps to close them. It also helped to inform and encourage states, who are not yet party, to accede to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions.
In his video address to participants of the conference, UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi noted progress made in Central Asia on reduction of statelessness: “Central Asia has become a leader in taking action to end statelessness. You have demonstrated that statelessness can be resolved and shown the world that States can and must work together on this. Today, at least 77,000 people remain without a nationality in Central Asia. While this is an important figure, it’s clear from the progress so far that resolving statelessness in Central Asia by 2024 is within reach. It is a matter of political will and determination.”
Conference participants included representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice, State Migration and Registration Services, State Committees on Statistics, as well as the Human Rights Ombudsman’s offices of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as well as international and regional organizations, international experts on nationality and statelessness, academia and civil society organizations working on nationality and statelessness issues in the region.
The event was conducted as part of the activities to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. As of August 2021, 77 States are party to the 1961 Convention, including Turkmenistan in Central Asia. UNHCR calls on countries that are not yet party to the 1961 Convention to accede and join the global effort to end statelessness. States are also encouraged to accede to the 1954 Convention.
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