Tashkent, January 20, 2021 – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) deliver IT equipment to the State Committee of Statistics of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 

Today, UNHCR and UNFPA supported the collection of data on statelessness within 2023 national population and housing census in Uzbekistan, by donating 19 sets of computer equipment to the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics. The State Committee will use this equipment to collect and manage disaggregated population data, including on stateless persons and those with undetermined nationality.

UNHCR and UNFPA are pleased to jointly assist Uzbekistan’s collection, analysis and dissemination of data on stateless persons to support the legal identity of all persons by 2030 (SDG 16.9) achievement and other goals of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development, “leaving no one behind”.   Censuses provide a critical opportunity for governments to gather statistics and information on the situation of stateless persons. The census results can provide data on the number of demographic characteristics of stateless persons to inform the work of policy makers to study the causes of statelessness and how it can be speedily resolved and prevented in the future.

Statelessness is estimated to affect millions of people around the world but measuring the full extent of statelessness is complex given that stateless people are often undocumented and remain unseen and unheard. The collection of reliable data on statelessness is included into the Global #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024.

“Today’s event marks the pivotal role the UN system plays in assisting national statistical offices in planning and carrying out censuses. While each UN agency brings its unique expertise, the work of Goscomstat with the UNHCR in particular helps to establish the best method for identifying stateless persons and collecting census information on them. UNFPA, as the lead agency for census support, will continue to bring partners together to help Uzbekistan to ensure that censuses are of high quality, uphold international principles and standards, and produce data that are widely disseminated and utilized for development”. - said Yu Yu, UNFPA Representative in Uzbekistan.

 “In recent years, we have witnessed remarkable progress of Uzbekistan in reducing and preventing statelessness, including a landmark law passed last year, which allows to end statelessness for an estimated 50,000 people living in Uzbekistan, and recent announcement of the President of Uzbekistan allowing to resolve statelessness situation of another 20,000 persons in the country and acquire citizenship in 2021. UNHCR also appreciates Uzbekistan’s commitment to map the full extent of statelessness through the 2023 National Population and Housing Census, and in this regard stands ready to continue supporting the Republic of Uzbekistan in ending statelessness by or before 2024.” said Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Representative for Central Asia.