On 30 May 2023a high-level roundtable on the eradication of statelessness in Central Asia was held in Almaty to make Central Asia the first sub-region to successfully address the issue.

The roundtable, organized by UNHCR in Central Asia, brought together government officials and representatives from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as national and international experts to share good practices and experiences in addressing statelessness. An important part of the discussion was the commitments related to statelessness in the upcoming Global Refugee Forum (GRF) 2023.

During the roundtable, participants discussed the resolution of individual cases of statelessness, universal birth registration, national legal safeguards to prevent statelessness, accession to the statelessness conventions, collection and analysis of data and statistics on statelessness, commitments relating to statelessness for the Global Refugee Forum 2023.

Central Asian countries have made significant strides in detecting, reducing, and preventing statelessness in recent years. Nevertheless, in order to reach the targets by 2024, participants reiterated the need for accelerated and focused action.