When UNHCR’s ten-year #IBelong campaign to end statelessness launched back in 2014, I well remember the excitement many of us working on statelessness felt seeing the issue getting so much visibility in mainstream media, with the then High Commissioner Antonio Guterres doing a global tour of TV studios. These sort of catalytic visibility moments are critical because if you can’t see a problem, you can’t fix it.
However, recognising a problem is not the same thing as fixing it. Despite some important progress made over the last ten years, we must be honest in recognising that collectively we are still a very long way from ending statelessness, either in Europe or globally.
UNHCR’s High-Level Segment on Statelessness (HLS)
Last week’s High-Level Segment on Statelessness (HLS) organised by UNHCR during its 75th ExCom meeting – bringing together governments, regional institutions and UN bodies from across the globe - provided another hugely important visibility moment with the current High Commissioner Filippo Grandi extensively and repeatedly highlighting the urgency of tackling statelessness during his opening address and subsequent remarks.
I was honoured to speak on the first HLS panel to a packed-out Palais des Nations during the HLS which saw the launch of the new Global Alliance to End Statelessness. It was a particular privilege to share the stage with two formerly stateless activists, Noor Azizah and Nosizi Dube, whose compelling reflections set the tone for the discussion that followed. Later that evening, it was a joy to watch Deepti Gurung win the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Regional Award for Asia in recognition of her tireless campaigning for reform of Nepal’s citizenship laws.
During the HLS it was very encouraging and significant to hear the High Commissioner respond so directly and positively to my challenge that the scale of the remaining statelessness problem makes it incumbent upon UNHCR to increase rather than decrease its prioritising and programming on the issue as part of a collective re-doubling of efforts. The following three days of ExCom saw countless governments and regional institutions take the floor to pledge their commitment to tackle statelessness.
This is welcome but now the challenge is to convert this into tangible action and impact, and in truth to do better than was collectively managed during the decade-long #IBelong campaign. Otherwise, the hope and optimism generated by the HLS will quickly evaporate and leave many - including those stateless communities leading advocacy efforts in Geneva last week – feeling unheard and betrayed.
The Global Alliance to End Statelessness
The Global Alliance to End Statelessness is a collaborative multistakeholder platform led by UNHCR whose mission is to create “a world free from statelessness where everyone enjoys the right to a nationality without discrimination.”
The Alliance has the potential to address remaining law and policy gaps, including through its Solution Seeker Programme which supports governments and regional intergovernmental bodies to make pledges and to optimise and accelerate the rate at which these are implemented, thereby advancing concrete, permanent solutions for stateless communities. In addition, the Alliance will encompass Regional Network Labs and Thematic Working Groups to help share information and build the capacity of relevant actors and experts to support changemaking efforts. It will also feature an Online Marketplace to help resource necessary activities and engagement. Finally, a crucial component and ethos of the Alliance is its commitment to centre stateless people with lived experience and expertise.
Bridging current gaps – the role of UNHCR and civil society/stateless communities
A crucial new ingredient of the Global Alliance, in many ways its USP, is its embedded multistakeholder approach i.e. very deliberately bringing civil society and stateless community members around the table alongside governments, regional institutions and UN actors.
This will be a key feature of all interactions within the Alliance, whether on its Advisory Committee (on which ENS is proud to serve), in shaping law & policy reform through the Solution Seeker Programme, taking forward Thematic Working Groups, organising Regional Network Labs and/or in the design of its four-yearly Forum and other convenings. As the Alliance’s Secretariat, UNHCR will play a key coordination role to make this work in practice. It will also need to maintain its own levels of internal programming on statelessness so as to be able to effectively engage with and promote the Global Alliance at country and regional level.
Initial signs are encouraging that UNHCR is both ready and serious about doing so. In the margins of the HLS, I convened a meeting of 14 civil society and stateless-led organisations with UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Ruven Menikdiwela and DIP Director Elizabeth Tan. It was welcome to see UNHCR’s senior leadership showing such genuine, committed and concrete interest in tackling the issue. Maintaining and delivering on this will be critical to the ultimate success or failure of the Alliance.
Five key things that need to happen next
-
Ensuring a truly multistakeholder approach
The Global Alliance is unequivocal in recognising that progress on statelessness is only possible if all stakeholders are involved working together to identify and deliver change – including concrete engagement with the Solution Seeker Programme at country and/or regional level. In some regions this will represent a paradigm shift in providing civil society and community representatives an equal place around the table. It will require a new mindset and approach which must be applied not only in global settings but also at the country and local level. This must be rigorously respected and implemented from the outset. -
Mobilising much greater resourcing for civil society, including at the local level
Ensuring the full participation of civil society and community representatives as part of an effective multistakeholder approach will also require far greater resourcing. The statelessness field is currently chronically under-funded so it will be vital that the Global Alliance – including through its Online Marketplace - is able to secure new donors to resource projects involving civil society. In parallel, UNHCR should increase its allocation of programmatic statelessness funding, including to increase the level of its partnership agreements with CSOs working at country and regional level in support of the Global Alliance. More broadly, significantly increased bilateral and multilateral funding will need to be leveraged to finance multistakeholder partnerships and approaches over the coming years. -
Avoiding a facade of action – cultivating active membership of the Global Alliance
One potential risk with the Global Alliance is if it fails to deliver action beyond broad support of its objectives, or if members (including governments) join but pay only lip service. Key to avoiding this will be UNHCR’s ability to coordinate a strong engagement strategy aimed at encouraging governments and regional institutions to join the Solution Seeker Programme, and not only come on board as general members of the Alliance, either immediately or later as part of incrementally increased engagement. Where entities cannot become solution seekers, they should become solution sponsors by financing Alliance initiatives. -
Increasing UNHCR prioritisation, programming and leadership on statelessness
Given the scale of the problem still to be addressed (despite progress made during the #IBelong campaign) UNHCR will need to significantly scale up rather than reduce its programming and prioritisation of statelessness. The next High Commissioner will inherit this mantle and challenge, with one early opportunity to demonstrate their intent by choosing statelessness as the priority theme for the next High Commissioner’s Protection Dialogue (expected in 2026). Meanwhile, there is significant scope to better mainstream statelessness through UNHCR’s Global Refugee Forum, including the High Level Officials Meeting (HLOM) scheduled for December 2025. Within UNHCR there remains a critical need for increased capacity and expertise across all of its regional and country operations. At the same time, some prioritisation may need to be afforded to particular countries where the need is most acute and/or where change opportunities are more immediate. -
Centring and enabling meaningful engagement of lived experience and expertise
Our community group of stateless changemakers within ENS has repeatedly reinforced the vital importance that they are meaningfully engaged with informing and delivering all advocacy, capacity-building and awareness-raising activities. The Global Alliance’s core commitment to centre stateless people is hugely welcome but must be fully reflected in practice. It is not sufficient that stateless people simply appear on podiums as examples of progress or manifestations of solutions designed and championed by others. Instead, they are the key architects of reform and must be able to claim power as leaders of change. This distinction must not be lost. Collectively we should also not lose sight of the need to address barriers that frustrate this, whether lack of resourcing or hybrid meeting facilities or anything else that impedes meaningful engagement.
A solvable issue but can we resolve it?
During the HLS, and ever since the launch of the #IBelong campaign a decade ago, it has been very commonly remarked that statelessness is a solvable issue. And it is. But achieving this will need far more than mere words.
As those attending the HLS return to their various places of work, this challenge must be resumed and urgently addressed each and every day, and until statelessness is finally ended.