the procedure of determining their citizenship by the Conflict Commission, as the new citizenship law already recognizes them as Kyrgyz citizens. • • • • • To clarify and provide relevant instruction on the Regulation on the Consideration Pro cedure of Issues of Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic (approved by presidential decree #473 of 25 October 2007,) with the goal of allowing holders of foreign pass ports which have expired to apply for Kyrgyz citizenship. To abolish the procedure for obtaining immigrant status as it duplicates the procedure for obtaining a permanent residence permit, and to reduce the latter’s period of consid eration to three months, given that simplified procedures for obtaining citizenship should not take more than three months. To consider amendments that would allow the staff of passport departments to accept other means of establishing the parents’ citizenship if children are unable to provide copies of their passports when applying for their own passports. To transfer the power to register aliens and stateless persons and issue residence permits to the provincial DPVCs. To recognize birth certificates issued by the Kyrgyz civil registry as the basis for issu ing a Kyrgyz passport for the first time to children that have reached the age of 16. This is in accordance with the current citizenship law, which states that Kyrgyz citzenship is obtained at birth. It is thus necessary to provide a substitute for the re quired passports* of the parents if one or both of the child’s parents are absent. The survey has shown that the problems of statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic cannot be solved by effective legislation on citizenship and migration alone. Recommended measures to improve the implementation of legislation include: • • • • To improve the system of selection, arrangement, and professional skills development of relevant authorities; To develop and implement codes of conduct for officials; To strengthen State and public control over the implementation of relevant legislation; To ensure that violations of relevant legislation by officials are consistently sanctioned. In order to develop the institution of citizenship, effectively regulate external migration and prevent statelessness, the government should consider the following steps: • • Eliminate inconsistencies and gaps in legislation that lead to statelessness; Develop and introduce by-laws (regulations, instructions, provisions) that would pro vide access for stateless persons to procedures for simplified legalization and adoption of Kyrgyz citizenship; • Strengthen the legal framework and practices of officials dealing with citizenship issues by modifying their job descriptions and providing them with clear and detailed prin ciples and procedures for working with stateless persons; • Publish an official interpretation of the new citizenship law and send a copy to all rel evant agencies; • • Train the staff of local passport divisions on new mechanisms to legalize stateless per sons and on how to handle applications for citizenship; Carry out information campaigns to raise public awareness about the legal framework of legalization and naturalization in the Kyrgyz Republic; * cf. Instruction on the Procedure of Registrations and Issuance of passports to Citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic, # 146 of 13 March 2006 The Situation of Stateless Persons in the Kyrgyz Republic: Findings of Surveys Commissioned by the UNHCR 35