not crossing borders in massive numbers or living in camps. It's important to be aware, however, that most people who are stateless today are stateless as a result of discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, religion or gender. Indeed, the majority of the world's known stateless populations belong to minority groups. Excluding entire sectors of a population from nationality creates social and political tensions that can precipitate conflict, violence and displacement. Recent incidents involving the Rohingya in Myanmar (including the Andaman Sea crisis in 2015) and the Bidoun in the Gulf demonstrate the considerable costs to development and security of leaving statelessness unresolved—not to mention the human rights impact.  Most of the protections in the international human rights treaties are of course supposed to apply to all persons, not just citizens, but in practice we know that stateless minorities are likely to suffer rights deprivations and are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses such as sexual exploitation and human trafficking.  The legal framework to prevent and reduce statelessness includes the two UN Statelessness Conventions and complementary provisions in human rights treaties, including the provisions on the right to nationality in the ICCPR, CRC, CERD, and CEDAW. Article 9 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provides that "a contracting State may not deprive any person or group of their nationality on ethnic, racial, religious or political grounds"-- and yet this continues to happen all over the world, with the Rohingya and persons of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic being only two of the most visible examples.  Building on the human rights framework, and on progress with respect to accessions to the Statelessness Conventions, in 2014 UNHCR launched an ambitious ten year Campaign to End Statelessness. Known as the #IBelong Campaign, this effort has led to greater awareness and political will than we enjoyed just a few years ago, with significant initiatives being taken at the regional and national levels, including for example the Abidjan Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness and the chapter on statelessness in the Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action. The operational framework for the #IBelong Campaign is a 10 point Global Action Plan, which includes specific actions aimed and preventing and resolving statelessness, including adherence to the Statelessness Conventions. We've had thirteen new accessions over the last two years and need to continue to build on this momentum.  In 2017-2018, the thematic focus of the #IBelong Campaign will be "Equal Nationality Rights", which provides an opportunity to call more attention to the situation of stateless minorities. Through our work, we hope to highlight the tangible benefits experienced by formerly stateless minority groups of being recognized as citizens, as well as the benefits to their communities and societies as a whole, and to use this evidence to advocate on behalf of those who remain stateless.  The draft recommendations under discussion as Forum outcomes are helpful in that they highlight the disproportionate impact humanitarian crises have on stateless minorities, calling for the removal of discriminatory laws in para. 20 (j). As part of the Campaign we're inviting all actors to help in the effort to reform discriminatory laws and practices that lead to statelessness. In addition, UN agencies and other actors must be prepared to do more to intervene on behalf of those who lack identity documents, such as birth certificates. The absence of proof of nationality can give rise to the risk of statelessness, particularly among minorities, including those living in remote, border areas where proving ties to one State or the other can be made more difficult. Our collective effort to end statelessness of course finds resonance in the motivating principle of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, to "leave no one behind," and the specific goal (16.9) that all persons should have legal identity, including birth registration.  As part of our effort to ramp up awareness and action on these issues I strongly encourage States and other actors to make enhanced use of available human rights mechanisms to help end