gives everyone a sense of worth, dignity, equality, community and protection, further stating that from the beginning of history, excluding members from a certain community and thus subjecting them to become disempowered, worthless and voiceless has been one of the gravest punishments. She noted that statelessness not only leads to barriers in accessing fundamental rights and basic services, but also deeply damages the social fabric and has serious negative consequences on individual mental health and well-being. Ms Rita Izsák-Ndiaye referred to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which prohibits discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to a nationality on the grounds of race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, and General Recommendation No. 30 on the discrimination against non-citizens developed by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The importance of data on the non-citizen and stateless populations, including socio-economic data disaggregated by gender and national or ethnic origin was also highlighted. The Chair emphasized the need to come up with suggestions, recommendations, good practices and creative ideas on how we cooperate better in addressing statelessness, since no UN Agency or the UN itself alone can resolve statelessness unilaterally. Ms. Izsák-Ndiaye reemphasized the need for 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. Item II. Root causes and consequences of statelessness affecting minorities: preventing statelessness through a human rights approach This session discussed the main factors which serve as underlying causes of statelessness of minorities and addressed the negative impact of statelessness on a person’s ability to enjoy fully human rights and fundamental freedoms, and have access to justice. This session explored ways to prevent statelessness through the promotion and protection of the human rights of persons belonging to minorities, as well as the importance of elimination of discrimination on all grounds, in particular discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion and language. Mr. Amal de Chickera, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, stated that statelessness is a global phenomenon affecting minorities around the world, and stressed that discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, being the defining characteristics of minorities, often serves as the root causes of their statelessness. Parallels were drawn between intersection of such discrimination with the one on the basis of gender, disability, socio-economic disadvantage, which may further aggravate the situation. He further emphasized that the problem of statelessness and its impact on minorities cannot be ignored, since it stands contrary to the affirmation of human rights and the vision for more equal and inclusive societies. Challenges of patriarchy, racism, fundamentalism, nationalism and xenophobia, among others, were named to be at the heart of structures of power, as well as at the heart of discrimination. The necessity of challenging stereotypes and dismantling structural discrimination and the idea that some belong but others do not was emphasized. He further referred to historical facts such as dissolution of the states, independence from colonial powers, the requirement to register as citizens of newly formed countries, the passing of discriminatory nationality laws, wars and displacement were also stated as factors that had generated statelessness among minorities. Amal de Chickera highlighted the need to challenge the 4