Spotlight

Report on “Seeds for Solutions” project

UNHCR Representation of UNHCR in the Kyrgyz Republic shares its progress report under the “Seeds for Solutions” project on Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness. Please see the Progress Report for 31 March following the link.

In February 2014, UNHCR Solutions Steering Group selected Kyrgyzstan as one of the pilot countries for the “Seeds for Solutions” initiative. The initiative encouraged UNHCR country offices to seek meaningful and measurable ways to reduce and to prevent statelessness. UNHCR Kyrgyzstan received funding to carry out a pilot project that would offer durable solutions to stateless and undocumented persons.

In June 2014, UNHCR, jointly with its governmental and non-governmental partners, launched a pilot registration and documentation exercise in Osh city, Osh, Jalalabad, and Chuy provinces. Twenty-eight mobile multifunctional teams were created, comprising NGO-hired lawyers, self-governance officials, and passport desk officers. These teams travelled to the designated areas of the country in order to provide legal aid to beneficiaries, and to assist them in filing for citizenship determination or acquisition. The target groups of beneficiaries include soviet passport holders, foreigners with expired passports, and persons without birth certificates.

Following the successful completion of the 2014 pilot project phase, the work continues this year in Bishkek city, Batken, Talas, and Chuy provinces. In 2015, UNHCR expects to assist 4,000 beneficiaries. In 2016, the teams will cover the remaining two provinces of Issyk-Kul and Naryn, and expect to assist additional 3,000 persons of concern. By the end of 2016, the teams will have covered the entire territory of Kyrgyzstan.

As nationality acquisition procedures take time, UNHCR is also establishing residual mechanisms that enable continuous monitoring of each individual case beyond the three-year operations of the field teams. For that purpose, the project partners have developed a project database which allows tracking and updating individual case progress for each beneficiary.