Press Releases

UNHCR and the State Registration update the National Action Plan on Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic

27 November, Bishkek - Today, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kyrgyzstan and the State Registration Service under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic jointly held the fifth High-Level Steering Meeting on the Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Kyrgyzstan. Government officials, civil society representatives, and experts came together in order to take stock of the implementation of the National Action Plan on the Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Kyrgyzstan, and to discuss the way forward.

The National Action Plan is a guiding document for the coordinated effort to address statelessness in Kyrgyzstan. Among various steps suggested, it encourages registration and documentation of stateless and undocumented persons, proper documentation of newborn children, awareness-raising campaigns on the rights of stateless persons, and progressive legislative amendments to laws and by-laws in matters of citizenship and civil registration. First adopted in 2009, it is updated annually, taking into account the progress achieved, and setting new objectives.

"Worldwide there are about ten million of stateless people. There thousands of stateless and undocumented people in Kyrgyzstan. These persons are not alien to this land. They live here, their children are born here. Some of these persons are ethnic Kyrgyz, and others are married to Kyrgyz citizens. Lacking proper documentation, however, they are barred from state socio-economic services that they would enjoy otherwise.", said Mr. Johann P. Siffointe, Representative of UNHCR.

In 2014, UNHCR and the Kyrgyz Government launched a joint effort to address the remaining cases of statelessness in the country. The initiative is mandated by the National Action Plan, and is supported through the UNHCR "Solutions Initiative" fund. The goal of the project is to register and to document stateless and undocumented persons throughout the country. Starting June 2014, twenty-eight multifunctional mobile teams were created, trained, and equipped to carry out the registration effort. These teams traveled to remote areas of Kyrgyzstan in order to provide free legal consultations to the project beneficiaries. The teams helped these persons to file for citizenship, documentation, or both.

In 2014, the teams are working in Osh city, Osh and Jalalabad provinces, and three selected districts of Chui province. As of today, the teams have registered more than 6,000 stateless and undocumented persons. It is expected that a majority of these beneficiaries will receive their new passports or birth certificates by the end of the year.

The National Action Plan also encourages Kyrgyzstan to accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Such a step would manifest Kyrgyzstan's commitment to preventing and reducing statelessness in the country. As current Kyrgyz legislation is largely in compliance with the two conventions, the accession would serve as a symbolic closure to the statelessness chapter.

"Accession to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions will encourage us to develop a mechanism for identifying stateless persons in the country. This will also allow us to assist stateless and undocumented persons, including Kyrgyz citizens without documentation", said Dastan Dogoev, Deputy Chairperson of the State Registration Service.

The National Action Plan and the joint effort to eradicate statelessness in Kyrgyzstan are a part of a global campaign to end statelessness. Launched by UNHCR on 4 November 2014, this campaign sets an ambitious goal of eradicating statelessness worldwide in the next ten years.