A/HRC/40/64 issues or concerns, particularly when they are limited to two or three minutes to do so. While a more regional approach may make this interactive dialogue more accessible to minorities in different parts of the world and more receptive to regional concerns and contexts, other improvements should also be examined in 2019. VI. Conclusions and recommendations 99. The Special Rapporteur’s first thematic report to the General Assembly in 2018 on statelessness, as well as the focus of the 2018 Forum on Minority Issues on statelessness as a minority issue, have succeeded in raising awareness and the visibility of the extent statelessness in every part of the world and that it mainly involves persons who belong to specific minorities. He intends to further pursue awarenessraising activities on statelessness as a minority issue with the United Nations, UNHCR, States and other stakeholders in 2019 in order to suggest more effective ways of addressing the root causes of statelessness affecting the vast majority of the world’s more than 10 million stateless persons. The success of the 2018 Forum has contributed greatly in enhancing the visibility and raising awareness of this issue. 100. He urges that, in view of the high-level review in 2019 of the UNHCR Ibelong campaign to eradicate statelessness by 2024, the issue of how to address more directly the root causes of the denial or stripping of citizenship, involving more than 7.5 million minorities, be acknowledged and included for further deliberation and action. 101. He invites States, regional organizations, NGOs, OHCHR and UNHCR to more proactively and as a matter of priority direct their attention and efforts to addressing the de facto and de jure statelessness affecting minorities. 102. In line with the suggestions made at the Forum, he calls upon States to draft and adopt a General Assembly resolution solemnly recognizing, as a binding rule of customary international law, that the State in which a child is born must grant that child the nationality of that State if otherwise he or she would be stateless. 103. He invites States and other interested parties to follow up on the recommendation made at the Forum that the United Nations consider formally recognizing an international day of observance each year dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of stateless persons worldwide. 104. He reiterates the need for a more targeted and comprehensive identification of the positive measures that States can take to avoid the scourge of statelessness affecting millions of minorities, in accordance with their international human rights obligations. He intends to develop expert guidelines to this effect in 2019. 105. The continued success of the Forum, measured by the very high levels of participation in 2018, is noteworthy. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that additional regional platforms, inspired by the Forum, will be considered in 2019 so as to strengthen its role as an important platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, which provides thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the Special Rapporteur, and identifies best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives for the further implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 6/15, which was reaffirmed by resolution 19/23. It is therefore hoped that at least three regional forums could be held in Africa, Asia and Europe so that this unique platform can be supplemented by these initiatives to be even more responsive to regional contexts and concerns, as well as more accessible to interested parties on a regional basis and more conducive to interactive dialogue among stakeholders, including State authorities and minority organizations. 106. The launching in 2018 of a searchable database of the more than 4,000 documents related to the Forum since 2008 greatly improves access to and the visibility of the many valuable statements, declarations, reports, recommendations 15