Information in the Index is structured by country and by theme. Each country in the Index has its own country page. Each of the five themes also has its own page. The themes are further divided into subthemes, which aim to present the right balance of detail to reflect nuances in a country’s law, policy and practice, and capture information across countries with different legal systems. Performance under each subtheme can be compared across up to four different countries.
If you are interested in the detail of how a country performs in its efforts to protect stateless people and prevent and reduce statelessness, you can select a country page and review its performance under all five themes and subthemes.
If you would like to compare a specific theme across different countries, you can go to one of the theme pages, and use the comparator tool to select up to four countries to review in more detail.
For example, if you would like to see how Germany, France, Switzerland, and The Netherlands compare on accession to the 1954 Convention, go to the ‘International and Regional Instruments’ theme page, select these four countries, and review the information displayed.
Each country’s law, policy and practice has been benchmarked against international norms and good practice and assessed as falling into one of five categories, ranging from the most positive to the most negative. The comparator tool allows you to see the assessment at a glance, and to click through to the country page for a more detailed explanation.
To help users understand and use the information in the Index, it is important to know how it was collected and analysed, and how it will be developed and maintained in the future. Further information on this can be found in the Methodology section.