Kyrgyzstan put an end to statelessness in the country, handing 50 birth certificates and passports to stateless persons, including 15 children. Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports.
It is specified that they have become the last known stateless persons in Kyrgyzstan and will now have the same rights as any other citizen of the republic.
In a breakthrough in the global fight against statelessness, the Kyrgyz Republic has become a leading example of how statelessness can be eradicated by bringing the number of stateless people in the country from over 13,000 to zero in just five years.
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
The break-up of the Soviet Union in the 1990s left hundreds of thousands throughout Central Asia stateless, including in Kyrgyzstan. Encouraged by the UNHCR-led #IBelong campaign that was launched in 2014 to end statelessness, the Government of Kyrgyzstan and partners had identified 13,700 people without nationality in the country. These included more than 2,000 children.
«Kyrgyzstan’s leadership on resolving known cases of statelessness is a remarkable example that I hope others will applaud and heed,» said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees."
Statelessness affects millions of people around the world, often denying them the basic rights and official recognition that most people take for granted.
