This discussion, this Forum, is a significant step forward out of our traditional silos, be it statelessness, minority rights, women's rights, children's rights, towards a more intersectional understanding of statelessness, that is more grounded in reality. Statelessness is a minority issue. Statelessness is a gendered issue. Statelessness impacts differently on children, on people with disabilities, on others with intersecting identities. To understand this more comprehensively is to understand people's lives and experiences more completely, and to begin to find solutions that are grounded in that experience, shaped by and relevant to the people affected. So, who are we talking about and what do we need to do, in more concrete terms, to turn this intersectional international framework into law, policy and practice that effectively addresses and redresses the balance to prevent and reduce statelessness among minority women and children? First and foremost, we need to eliminate provisions in nationality laws that directly discriminate against women, one of the main causes of statelessness. Nationality laws in 25 countries prevent women from passing their nationality to their children on an equal basis with fathers. Around 50 countries deny women equal rights with men in their ability to acquire, change, retain and confer their nationality. The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights has done tremendous work to galvanise action to reform gender discriminatory laws, and countries that have removed discriminatory provisions should be commended. But we need to build on this and take the debate beyond explicit legal discrimination to understand the subtler forms of indirect discrimination in the way seemingly neutral laws are implemented in practice. This is where minority women and children in the European context where we work are being most impacted by the risk of statelessness. Take the example of Roma women and children in the Western Balkans. A context where several factors combined to heighten the risk of statelessness: state succession and displacement, affecting the most marginalised groups most acutely. It is their belonging that is most often questioned. Add to this a wider societal context across Europe in which antigypsyism and gender inequality persist,

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