Today, November 8, a regional ministerial conference on ending statelessness in Central Asia kicked off in Ashgabat.

The event comes at an important time of the end of the UN #IBelong campaign, a ten-year program aimed at eradicating statelessness worldwide, and the launch of the new Global Alliance to End Statelessness, which began its work in October.

The forum is being attended by Turkmenistan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Myahri Byashimova, Chairman of the State Migration Service of Turkmenistan Amanmukhammet Sazakov, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan Dmitry Shlapachenko, as well as foreign experts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and UNHCR.

The regional conference serves as a key platform for sharing experience and strengthening cooperation in eradicating statelessness.

It is worth noting that Turkmenistan has fully fulfilled its commitments under the #IBelong campaign, reaffirming its commitment to its humanitarian obligations. In recent years, Turkmenistan has granted citizenship to more than 32,000 people, including refugees and stateless persons, attributing its achievement to a combination of strong political will, legislative reforms, international cooperation and modernization of identification and registration systems.

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