CHAPTER 3 - REPORT OF THE LAW REFORM AND INTERNATIONAL TREATIES WORKING GROUP 5. THE RIGHTS OF STATELESS PERSONS UNHCR Thematic Protection Learning Programme (TPLP) on Statelessness The UNHCR is conducting an eight-month TPLP on Statelessness. Participating teams are from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar. The Malaysian team is represented by members of the Commission, ERA Consumer, UNHCR and Yayasan Nur Salam. This TPLP focuses on strengthening capacity to develop and carry out strategies to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness and ensure the protection of stateless persons. It also seeks to build on the inter-agency approach by training UNHCR staff-members and other UN agencies, as well as key NGO partners. Upon completion of assignments and attendance at a workshop in Bangkok to elaborate on the TPLP, each country team developed a project relating to statelessness. The Malaysian team decided to embark on a project to gather the estimated number of stateless individuals in Peninsular Malaysia, in order to assist them with registration. In this respect, ERA Consumer has vast experience in aiding the registration of stateless locals. The team will seek assistance from Government agencies and NGOs, and the outcome of the project will be brought to the attention of the authorities for further action. The right to belong to a State and to citizenship are basic human rights that are indivisible from other sets of rights. Without citizenship, violation of other rights would occur. In Malaysia, for example, the absence of citizenship would deny a person’s access to the right to own property, to work and to education. The individuals affected are also often stigmatised and deprived of participation in society. 6. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN On 7 September, the Commission received an invitation from the MWFCD to attend a RTD on the proposal to enact a Gender Equality Act. The RTD was held to gather the responses of various Government agencies and women’s NGOs. The Commission is in full support of the proposal as it will enhance women’s rights and promote gender equality. 56