the social fabric and has serious negative consequences on individual mental health and well-being. Preventing and ending statelessness is not an easy task as the regulation of nationality is a sensitive issue that touches upon national identities and the question on who is accepted as a full member of the political community in a given State. However, thanks to a number of international treaties and costumary law, and more precisely to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, there are legal standards in place which must be respected and enforced. I have the honor to currently serve as a member and Rapporteur of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Our Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination prohibits discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to a nationality on the grounds of race, colour, or national or ethnic origin. Recognizing the importance of this right, the Committee issued General Recommendation No. 30 on the discrimination against non-citizens. We have been consistent and persistent in requesting data on the non-citizen and stateless population, including socio-economic data disaggregated by gender and national or ethnic origin. During our last session in August 2018 for example, we expressed concerns that migrants and other minorities are at risk of statelessness in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were alarmed by reports that many of Chinese-born children of asylum-seekers are stateless and do not enjoy public education or other services because their parents fear facing refoulement upon registration of the births. And while we noted efforts by Latvia to facilitate naturalization, we remained worried that 11% of the population has no nationality and that they are considered as a separate legal category of noncitizens who are at risk of statelessness. During these coming two days, we have lots of work ahead. While we will listen to testimonies and experiences and reflect on current challenges, we will also need to come up with suggestions, recommendations, good practices and creative ideas on how we cooperate better in addressing statelessness. It is encouraging and inspiring that UNHCR is determined to end statelessness by 2024. However, we also know that no UN agency or the UN itself alone can resolve statelessness unilaterally. We need the commitment of the States concerned as nationality can only be conferred or confirmed by States who are responsible for protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people on their territory including those of stateless persons.