NFA organized a regional CSO Consultation on Forming a Regional Alliance inviting interested CSOs and the Advisory Group members on November 2 and 3, 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand. 18 CSO representatives and 7 advisory Group members attended the event. The following participants attended the event.

On Day 1, the participants were provided an overview of the statelessness situation in the Asia Pacific region by UNHCR RBAP’s Senior Statelessness Officer, Matthias Reuss. This was followed by a discussion on the need for a regional coalition in Asia Pacific. All the participating CSOs made a presentation of their work and shared what their expectations would be from a regional coalition and how they could contribute to it. This was followed by a panel discussion on the ‘Importance of Fair and Meaningful Participation of Persons with Lived Experience of Statelessness’. All four panelists were persons with lived experience and included Bina Ramanand (Family Frontiers, Malaysia), Muhammad Noor (Rohingya Project), Deepti Gurung (Citizenship Affected People’s Network, Nepal), and Khalid Hussain (Council of Minorities, Bangladesh). This was followed by another panel discussion on ‘Coordinating a Regional Network’. The panelists included Chris Nash (European Network on Statelessness), Zahra Albarazi (Hawiati MENA Statelessness Network), and Hafsar Tameesuddin (Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network).

On Day 2, UNHCR made a presentation on ‘Statelessness and Development’. This was followed by a breakout session on ‘Building a Regional Coalition’ where participants were tasked with discussing the next steps to forming a regional network.

Outcomes of the Event

1. Identification of key areas of work for the Regional Coalition
   • Data collection and knowledge building on statelessness through research, capacity strengthening of CSOs, awareness-raising programs, and rapid response services to stateless persons and activists, were identified as key areas for the regional alliance to work on.
   • Human rights advocacy and engagement with UN agencies and government bodies were identified as areas that the regional alliance should also focus on, but they need to further be deliberated upon in terms of how they can be done more strategically.
2. Thematic Focus, Structure, and Activities of the Regional Coalition
   
   It was decided that it was too early to discuss the thematic focus, structure, and activities of the Regional Alliance at this early stage. However, NFA was advised to consult with the former Board members and other active members of SNAP before preparing the concept papers on the thematic focus, structure, and activities of the Regional Alliance.
3. Next Steps
   • NFA to create an email group comprising all the Alliance members and share regular updates of any statelessness-related work including information on any regional or global event on statelessness
   • NFA to meet one on one to consult with the former SNAP Board members to take their suggestions on the formation of the regional alliance, and ask if they would be interested in joining the Coalition formation process
   • After the consultation with the former SNAP Board members, NFA to organize a virtual meeting of the Advisory Group members for further suggestions on the Concept Papers
   • NFA to prepare the following documents and share it with the alliance members for comments and review before the next in-person meeting of the CSOs
     • An Options Paper on the Structure of the Regional Coalition based on the key areas identified
     • A Concept Paper on the Thematic Focus of the Regional Coalition
     • A Concept Paper on the Activities of the Regional Coalition based on the key areas identified
   • CSOs and Advisory Group members to provide their inputs and comments on the documents
   • NFA to organize another in-person Consultation to discuss the Options Paper and the Concept Papers to include additional sessions on Self-Care and possibly invite government representatives to share good practices in one of the sessions