Regional Conference on the Right to Legal Identity and Prevention of Statelessness “Leaving No One Behind at Birth” 7-8 June 2018 Hotel Intercontinental, Almaty, Kazakhstan Joint conclusions to prevent statelessness by birth registration of all children born in the countries of Central Asia 1. Acknowledging the significant progress made by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in addressing statelessness including through confirmation of citizenship of more than 40,000 people between 2014 and 2017; granting rights to stateless persons residing on their respective territories; and reforming national legislative frameworks on citizenship to improve the level of compliance with international standards; 2. Noting the commitments made by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan under the major human rights instruments, including: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which stipulate that States Parties should register all children immediately after birth without discrimination1 and the right to acquire nationality, as invoked by the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council every year since 20012; 3. Noting that the UN Sustainable Development Goal for the period until 2030 is the principle ‘leave no one behind’, most notably Target 16.9 aiming to achieve ‘legal identity for all, including birth registration’3; 1 Turkmenistan acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons on 7/12/2011 and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness on 29/08/2012. Article 29 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of Their Families, provides that “each child of a migrant worker shall have the right to a name, to registration of birth and to a nationality.” In Central Asia, only the Kyrgyz Republic on 29/09/2005 and Tajikistan on 8/01/2002 ratified this Convention. 2 UN Human Rights Council, Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law : Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 17 June 2014, A/HRC/27/22, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/53ff324e4.html 3 UN General Assembly, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 21 October 2015, A/RES/70/1, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/57b6e3e44.html 1