Former Soviet nation of Turkmenistan provided 2,580 stateless people, in an significant step to end statelessness on its territory, following an presidential decree this month.Sixty per cent of those intended to benefit from the Decree are stateless women, representing 19 ethnic backgrounds.

UN report suggests that Turkmenistan has granted citizenship to 26,000 refugees and stateless people, over the last 15 years. These include some 13,000 stateless people who have been naturalized since the country acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons in 2011.

Government of Turkmenistan has been part of global UNHCR framework of #IBelong Campaign. UNHCR. United Nations High Comission for Refugees has welcomed the step undertaken by Government of Turkmenistan, through an official press release.

The press release quotes Mr. Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Representative for Central Asia,“Turkmenistan has once again shown its strong leadership when it comes to eradicating statelessness, ending a plight of invisibility for thousands of people. We are confident that it will follow through to resolve statelessness and integrate each and every stateless person on its territory in the coming years, hopefully by 2024.”

Statelessness affects millions of people around the world, often denying them access to basic rights that citizens take for granted. Statistical reports show there are some 4.2 million stateless people in the world. But the actual stateless people might be well above that figure across the globe.