A/73/205 45. In more recent years, especially in relation to individuals from another ethnic, religious or linguistic background who are denied or deprived of citizenship, it is the right to equality without discrimination that has come increasingly to the fore as one of the strongest human rights provisions that may successfully be invoked. 17 For example, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights found 18 that nationality had been denied to particular ethnic groups on the basis of their actual or perceived ethnic origin, their religion and/or their patronym and that the citizenship legislation and practice in place had led to discriminatory policies against persons belonging to ethnic minorities, with the result being statelessness for hundreds of thousands of individuals in Côte d’Ivoire. 46. As listed earlier herein, similar legislation and practices appear to be at the root of the denial or deprivation of citizenship of Palestinian, Rohingya, Russian, Roma, Bidun, Haitian, Lhotshampa and other minorities, of whom there are millions. In the final version of the present report, the Special Rapporteur will detail whether and how exactly these human rights obligations are involved. E. Effective eradication of statelessness with regard to minorities 47. It is also important to highlight recent constructive and effective initiatives that have been launched to address the particular vulnerability or marginalization of minorities in relation to statelessness. Thousands of indigenous people in Costa Rica and Panama, who are also a numerical minority in those countries, have had their citizenship recognized thanks to a recent registratio n drive by the Costa Rican Civil Registry and its Panamanian counterpart, supported by UNHCR. Nationality laws in a number of States, including recently Madagascar, have been amended to give women and men equal rights to pass on their nationality to their children as part of the UNHCR #IBelong campaign and one of its “10 actions to end statelessness by 2024”. 48. The key action in the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness is to “resolve existing major situations of statelessness”. As underlined herein, the major situations of statelessness everywhere in the world, involving more than three quarters of the total number of stateless persons, appear to involve targeted minorities who are denied or deprived of citizenship. 49. Although they predate the current UNCHR campaign, it is worth drawing attention to at least two situations where statelessness has been eradicated, resulting in the systematic recognition of or granting of citizenship to more than half a million persons belonging to minorities in just two countries, a hugely significant number overall. In Bangladesh (after 2007 for the Biharis) and Sri Lanka (after 2003 for the “estate” Tamils), litigation and changes in legislation eventually removed obstacles to the acquisition or effective recognition of citizenship for these minorities. This is also an indication of existing specific practices that show how similar measures could be adopted to resolve existing major situations of statelessness. 50. The Special Rapporteur will be holding further consultations and discussions with State and non-State actors in order to obtain feedback on the present report before submitting his report to the Human Rights Council in 2019. In addition, the theme will be examined by the Forum on Minority Issues in November 2019. It is hoped that practical guidelines will eventually be developed, following an additional __________________ 17 18 18-12048 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of Expelled Dominicans and Haitians v. Dominican Republic, judgment of 28 August 2014, and African Commission on Human and Peoples ’ Rights, Open Society Justice Initiative v. Côte d’Ivoire, decision 318/06 of 28 February 2015. African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Open Society Justice Initiative v. Côte d’Ivoire. 13/19