Ministerial Conference “Ending Statelessness in Central Asia” was held in Ashgabat

On 8 November 2024, the Ministerial Conference “Ending Statelessness in Central Asia” was held at the “Yyldyz” Hotel in Ashgabat.

The conference was organized by the Government of Turkmenistan and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with the participation of representatives of the Governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as UN agencies and international organizations.

The international conference was held within five plenary sessions, during which heads and representatives of delegations, UNHCR and other UN agencies, international organizations and diplomatic corps exchanged experience and demonstrated commitment to international initiatives, including special attention of the states to the resolution of the situation and readiness to continue work in subsequent formats.

During the conference the outcomes of the ten-year global UN #IBelong campaign in Central Asia were summarized.

It was noted in the speeches that Central Asia holds the leading position in the world in addressing the problem of statelessness, while Turkmenistan and the Kyrgyz Republic are the only countries in the world that have resolved all known cases of statelessness.

It was underlined that being a permanent member of the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Turkmenistan officially announced joining the Global Alliance to End Statelessness at its 75th session.

By becoming the first country in the region to unconditionally accede to the two UN Statelessness Conventions, establishing new procedures for determining the status of stateless persons and ensuring total registration of births, including those of undocumented persons, Turkmenistan is one of the first countries in the world to end all existing cases of statelessness.

Today, the country successfully accomplished the #IBelong campaign, becoming one of the leaders of regional and global initiatives on statelessness.

The participants concluded that the Ashgabat conference was an important platform for a broad dialogue at the key stage of the countries’ transition to the Global Alliance in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.

The Ministerial Conference “Ending Statelessness in Central Asia” resulted in the adoption of the Final Document.