Lead: Statelessness and Dignified Citizenship Coalition Asia Pacific (SDCC-AP)

Across the Asia Pacific, persons with lived experience of statelessness remain excluded from decisions and institutions that shape their lives, despite their lived expertise. Where involved, their participation is often limited to tokenistic or unpaid roles. SDCC-AP is co-led by persons with lived experience of statelessness and currently all the seven out of eleven members of the decision-making bodies (the Steering Committee and the Impacted Persons Advisory Group) are compensated for their time. With the Committees’ terms ending in January 2026, SDCC-AP envisions transitioning to a majority-impacted Steering Committee, ensuring that persons with lived experience lead governance and strategic decisions. However, to ensure paid roles for the impacted persons in the Steering Committee, and to further strengthen their meaningful participation and leadership, SDCC-AP requires financial resources.

Lead: Family Frontiers

Gender-unequal citizenship laws in Malaysia continue to leave many children in binational families without access to citizenship, contributing to statelessness and limiting the right to family life. Limited public awareness and few safe spaces for stateless people to share their lived realities reinforce marginalisation and hinder reform. This project responds by empowering young stateless individuals to tell their stories through creative, arts-based platforms that build visibility, empathy, and public understanding.

The campaign aims to shift narratives toward inclusion by equipping stateless participants with creative tools, producing community artworks, and engaging the public through exhibitions and digital storytelling. By expanding to East Malaysia and strengthening networks between communities, civil society, and local creatives, the project supports a more representative, community-driven movement to advance the rights and visibility of stateless people.