Dear Reader, Еveryone has the right to a nationality proclaims article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the same time the enjoyment of many other - even basic - human rights all too often depends on the possession of citizenship. State succession, transfer of territories, border delineations, internal and external migration and other factors produced big numbers of stateless persons in all successor states of the USSR. In most cases these were a mix of de jure and de facto stateless persons, as well as individuals whose nationality was not established or whose affiliation with any nationality was not properly documented. Since independence, Kyrgyzstan has taken many progressive, positive steps to reduce and prevent statelessness. The Government has signed bilateral agreements and established responsible institutions such as the Presidents’ Citizenship Commission, while Parliament adopted and improved national legislation, most notably the new Law on citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic of May 2007. History shows that the existence of disenfranchised populations endangers the economic development and stability of societies and states. Its efforts to integrate stateless persons and grant them citizenship demonstrate a profound understanding by the Government and authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic not only of the importance of protecting individual human rights but also of its benefits to the security and wealth of the whole nation. Discharging the global mandate entrusted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to prevent and reduce statelessness and to protect stateless persons, the Representation of the UNHCR is proud of its many years of assistance to the Kyrgyz Republic, both through advice for relevant legislation and practices as well as through operational support. As it yet lacks national mechanisms to proactively identify stateless persons, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic requested UNHCR to survey the situation. We commissioned expert non-governmental organizations to conduct three very detailed field studies in 2007 and 2008. It is our pleasure to herewith share with you the results of these surveys. Altogether these studies identified close to 13,000 stateless persons in 18 districts of Batken, Chui, Jalalabad and Osh provinces. As covering the whole country was beyond their means, the surveys focused on those rural areas where the experts expected and found a high incidence of citizenship problems. They collected invaluable information on the numbers and concentrations of stateless persons, their family and socio-economic situation, the reasons of their unsatisfactory legal status, as well as on the particular problems deriving thereof.