Mr. John Packer, University of Ottawa, who moderated the discussion emphasized that a rigorous application of the human rights based approach would bring to an end the global problem of statelessness. He mentioned that the enjoyment of human rights should not be connected with having a nationality or not rather than stipulated by virtue of being a human being. He referred to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, mainly Article 7 therein, which if respected would serve as effective means to combat statelessness. If states would respect their obligation to ensure the right to a nationality and thus the obligation not to create statelessness, it would bring a solution to the problem and eradicate statelessness. Discussion The following issues were raised during the discussion under Item II: - - The need of understanding and addressing the fact that statelessness undermines human dignity and hinders the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons belonging to minorities; The need to combat discrimination, stigma and hatred against the minorities and ensuring access to human rights and fundamental freedoms without any form of discrimination; The importance of eliminating arbitrary barriers for persons belonging to minorities in accessing identification documents, including, through law and policy reform; The importance of inclusion of minorities and their representatives in decisionmaking processes to combat statelessness; Item III. Statelessness resulting from conflicts, forced population movements and migration affecting minorities: main challenges and possible solutions This session discussed the impact of conflicts and their consequences in terms of statelessness of persons belonging to minorities, as a result of, inter alia, forced displacement, population transfers and forced migration. Consideration were also given to examples illustrating measures to adopt fair statelessness determination procedures in order to ensure that individuals enjoy their human rights during border crossing, until they acquire a nationality. Ms. Shahrzad Tadjbakhsh, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presented the work done by the UNHCR, including through "IBelong" Campaign to End Statelessness, which has also focused on the issue of stateless minorities. She emphasized that what unites the theme of statelessness as a potential consequence of conflict, forced displacement and migration is that all three phenomena often have the effect of uprooting a person from the place where they are born, or have lived most of their lives causing family separation, loss of identity documentation and prolonged exile from the place of origin. These factors often exacerbate the discriminatory treatment that minorities receive because of their inability to prove or establish their nationality, and can also make it much harder for them to access remedies that might be available to those who do not belong to minorities. Destruction of or lack of access to civil registration systems can also leave minorities vulnerable to risks of statelessness. Shahrzad Tadjbakhsh also highlighted irregular migration as another phenomenon 6