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Prevention
Prevention
The easiest and most effective way to deal with statelessness is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. With this in mind, UNHCR provides legal advice to governments on how to ensure that their nationality laws are compliant with standards set out in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and other relevant human rights treaties. For example, it advises states on the safeguards which are required in nationality laws to ensure that no child born on a particular country's territory would end up stateless.
Since the causes of statelessness go beyond gaps in nationality legislation, UNHCR also works to ensure that the way nationality matters are dealt with, country by country, is improved. This can include strengthening civil registration systems, promoting the importance of documenting a population, and providing training and technical advice to authorities to ensure that decisions on nationality are made without discrimination and in accordance with international human rights standards.