65 years after landmark Convention, UNHCR calls for renewed action to prevent statelessness

GENEVA – Sixty-five years since the conclusion of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for renewed political commitment to ensure that everyone can enjoy the right to a nationality.

At least 4.5 million people worldwide are known to be stateless or of undetermined nationality. Millions more are affected but remain invisible in official data.

For them, statelessness is a daily reality that can stop life in its tracks and often traps generations into cycles of exclusion and uncertainty. It can mean being unable to obtain identity documents, go to school, access health care, or work legally. In many cases, it can prevent people from registering their child’s birth, marrying, owning property, opening a bank account or travelling freely.

The international legal frameworks evolved in response to this reality. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons established protections for people who are already stateless. The 1961 Convention went further, creating safeguards to prevent statelessness from occurring in the first place, including measures to ensure that children are not born stateless and people do not lose their nationality if it renders them stateless.

Today, 82 States are party to the 1961 Convention, with Slovenia, South Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe among the most recent to join.

But legal commitments alone are not enough. UNHCR calls on States to translate commitments into results; protect stateless people and provide pathways to nationality, reform discriminatory nationality laws and practices creating new cases of stateless, accede to the UN Statelessness Conventions, and to join the Global Alliance to End Statelessness for collective action.

There is clear evidence that progress is possible. Since 2014, more than 650,000 stateless people have acquired or confirmed their nationality, while 94 countries have strengthened their nationality laws to help prevent statelessness.

Many countries achieved major breakthroughs. In 2019, Kyrgyzstan became the first country to resolve all known cases of statelessness in its territory, followed by Turkmenistan in 2024. Between 2021 and 2023, Kenya granted nationality to thousands of previously stateless people from the Makonde, Pemba and Shona minority groups. In 2025, North Macedonia was the first in the region to resolve all known cases of statelessness resulting from the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

In Thailand, over 120,000 stateless people have secured nationality or permanent residence through accelerated procedures put in place in 2025. Chile and the Philippines have recently updated their legislation to strengthen safeguards against childhood statelessness. In Syria, recent measures have opened a pathway to nationality for eligible members of Kurdish communities who faced decades of legal uncertainty.

Yet, the drivers of statelessness remain deeply entrenched, including discrimination in nationality laws and practices, gaps in nationality legislation and arbitrary deprivation of nationality. In 24 countries, women still cannot confer nationality on their children on an equal basis with men.

New challenges are also emerging. Climate change may increase risks of statelessness, in particular when people are displaced or documents are lost during disasters, and deepen vulnerabilities of those already stateless.

Stateless people are increasingly at the forefront of efforts to find solutions. Stateless-led organizations are advocating for legal reform, documenting barriers and helping shape policies that directly affect their communities. UNHCR works alongside these organizations, governments and partners, to prevent and resolve statelessness through legal and policy advice, support birth registration, and improved access to nationality procedures and documentation.

Statelessness is preventable and solvable. What is needed is political will to act. Sixty-five years after the promise of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, millions of people worldwide are still waiting for the most basic recognition of all: the right to a nationality. A right to belong.

For more information, please contact:

• In Geneva, Carlotta Wolf, [email protected], +41 79 546 67 07

Notes to editors

• The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provides international safeguards to prevent and reduce statelessness, including measures to prevent children from being born stateless and protections against the loss or deprivation of nationality.
• The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons establishes minimum standards of treatment and protection for people who are stateless.
• UNHCR’s Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2.0 sets out practical actions for States and partners, including resolving major situations of statelessness, ensuring that no child is born stateless, removing gender discrimination from nationality laws, improving civil registration and documentation, and strengthening data on stateless populations.
• The Global Alliance to End Statelessness, is a platform for action and collaboration which brings together 196 Members, including States, UN organizations, regional organizations, civil society organizations, and stateless-led organizations around a shared objective: a world free from statelessness where everyone enjoys the right to a nationality without discrimination. UNHCR hosts the Secretariat of this Alliance launched in 2024.