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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BISHKEK 001080 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2019 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KG
SUBJECT: THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC 
 
REF: BISHKEK 940 
 
BISHKEK 00001080  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Classified By: Classified by Charge d'Affaires Larry L. Memmott, for Re 
asons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: On September 22, UNHCR and the Kyrgyz 
government co-hosted a high-level steering meeting to 
highlight the problem of statelessness in Kyrgyzstan and 
adopted a concluding statement with concrete objectives. 
UNHCR also released a report detailing the results of a 
survey conducted in the southern oblasts of Osh, Jalalabad, 
and Batken that identified over 11,000 stateless persons.  To 
address this issue, the government tasked a Constitutional 
Court judge to research legal aspects of the problem and 
created a working group to devise viable solutions.  End 
Summary. 
 
UNHCR HOLDS STEERING COMMITTEE ON STATELESSNESS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On September 22, the UNHCR (United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees), together with the Administration 
of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, hosted a high-level 
steering meeting on "the reduction and prevention of 
statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic."  Meeting participants 
included representatives of Parliament, the Presidential 
Administration's Citizenship Commission, the Constitutional 
Court, the Ministry of Interior's Passport and Visa Service, 
and civil society.  During the event, UNHCR released a report 
entitled, "A Place to Call Home." The report detailed the 
findings of field studies conducted in the three southern 
oblasts of Osh, Jalalabad, and Batken on the situation of 
stateless persons.  Local NGOs, commissioned by UNHCR, 
conducted surveys in 18 southern districts and identified 
over 11,000 individuals who possessed expired USSR passports 
or had no legal document for identification purposes. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The UNHCR report grouped the stateless persons into 
five categories: persons who were citizens of another country 
but became stateless after losing their citizenship as a 
result of long-term residency in the Kyrgyz Republic; persons 
who arrived after the original citizenship law in 1993 (which 
converted all current residents with USSR passports to Kyrgyz 
citizens) and never applied for citizenship in the Kyrgyz 
Republic or any other country;  persons who have resided in 
the Kyrgyz Republic since 1994 but failed to exchange their 
USSR passports; children born to one or both parents who are 
stateless; and the children of labor migrants who have 
renounced their Kyrgyz citizenship. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The participants agreed upon a concluding statement 
that confirmed the need to reduce current and prevent future 
cases of statelessness.  The statement identified concrete 
objectives, to include bringing "relevant by-laws and 
instructions into compliance with the 2007 Law on Citizenship 
of the Kyrgyz Republic" and introducing simplified procedures 
to naturalize spouses of Kyrgyz citizens who originate from 
the Commonwealth of Independent States countries.  The 
statement recommended the Kyrgyz Republic's accession to the 
1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 
and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGE BLAMES IMPLEMENTING MINISTRIES 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶5. (C) During a meeting with Poloff on September 25, 
Constitutional Court Judge Chinara Musabekova claimed that 
the 2007 citizenship law addressed most of the shortcomings 
of previous legislation but said that working-level 
implementers of the new law lacked the formal guidance to 
implement the legislative updates.  Musabekova, who was 
recently tasked to be the "expert" and primary researcher in 
the Constitutional Court on statelessness, said that the 
regulations governing citizenship procedures currently 
 
BISHKEK 00001080  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry 
of Interior have yet to be amended to reflect the new 
legislation.  She said that no government agency or ministry 
can legally issue documents attesting to an individual's 
status of statelessness and that the government lacked 
procedures to treat stateless persons.  Musabekova added that 
the 2007 law, which "reflects most aspects of the 
international conventions on statelessness," means little to 
those seeking citizenship if the government officials 
authorized to certify an individual's status are unfamiliar 
with the law. 
 
¶6. (C) Musabekova expressed concern for two of the most 
vulnerable categories of stateless persons: the children of 
migrant workers and Uzbek brides.  Musabekova explained that 
labor migrants leaving for Russia would usually leave their 
children with relatives or friends.  However, many Kyrgyz 
labor migrants have since renounced their Kyrgyz citizenship 
to become Russian citizens.  With non-Kyrgyz citizen parents, 
the children face difficulties acquiring Kyrgyz passports 
once they reach the age of sixteen and are eligible to apply. 
 Musabekova insisted that the 2007 law resolved this problem 
but said that the ministries have not incorporated the 
changes into their regulations. 
 
¶7. (C) Musabekova also addressed the issue of Uzbek women 
married to Kyrgyz men who failed to renew their Uzbek 
citizenship and faced insurmountable obstacles to becoming 
Kyrgyz citizens.  Poloff first learned about this group from 
a UNHCR representative, who claimed that these women were 
deprived of essential social benefits from the state 
(reftel).  Musabekova said that legal status for these women 
was essential for access to more job opportunities and state 
health care.  She said that if the Uzbek women appealed to 
the local courts with the proper marriage certificate and 
proof of residency, their citizenship applications could be 
expedited.  Musabekova said she will continue researching 
legal guidelines and procedures in an effort to reduce 
statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic. 
 
WORKING GROUP ON STATELESSNESS CREATED 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) On September 28, Rahatbek Mamaev, Executive Secretary 
of the Citizenship Commission of the Presidential 
Administration and Abylmajin Akmashaev, Senior Inspector of 
the Interior Ministry's Passport and Visa Service office told 
Poloff that the government had created a working group to 
tackle the many facets of statelessness.  Mamaev said that 
the working group had already discussed issuing special 
booklets, together with internal identification cards, 
verifying an individual's stateless status until citizenship 
is awarded.  He concluded that some good ideas emerged from 
the working group but that new legislation and amendments to 
current regulations had to be introduced before these ideas 
could be implemented. 
 
¶9. (C) Asked about the case of Uzbek brides, Akmashaev 
asserted that the problem was bigger than mere statelessness. 
 He said that the government maintained a "difficult, 
sometimes shaky" relationship with Uzbekistan and that the 
two countries would need to resolve their border issues 
before Kyrgyzstan would be able to tackle citizenship issues 
of former citizens of Uzbekistan.  After the border issues 
were resolved, he stated, a simplified citizenship procedure 
could be established that would not cause difficulties with 
the Uzbek government. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9. (C) While it appears that Kyrgyzstan is taking some steps 
to deal with the general problem of statelessness, the issue 
of Uzbek brides clearly is more sensitive.  It appears that 
 
BISHKEK 00001080  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
the Kyrgyz government believes that a policy allowing Uzbek 
citizens to change their nationality to Kyrgyz might not be 
welcomed by their large and often unfriendly neighbor.  Like 
many other issues affecting the complex and oft contentious 
Kyrgyz-Uzbek relationship, Kyrgyzstan may prefer to defer 
action on the issue of Uzbek brides for a later, and 
hopefully more propitious, time. 
MEMMOTT