THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT directly in Uzbekistan, rather than through the Embassy in Ukraine. Clearly, she could not go to Uzbekistan to obtain the passport because crossing the border required the passport as well. Therefore, after turning 18, Svitlana was left with no documents at all. In 1999, she graduated from a Ukrainian school. However, she was not issued a certificate of general secondary education because she had no valid identity papers. Without a passport, she could neither obtain a permission to stay in the territory of Ukraine, nor exercise her right to acquire Ukrainian citizenship by territorial origin. Thus, a person who, pursuant to Ukrainian laws, had the right to acquire Ukrainian citizenship not only was deprived of the opportunity to exercise that right, but also found herself in an irregular situation. Later, in 2002, Svitlana met a man with whom she planned to start a family but unfortunately, they could not officially register their marriage – again because Svitlana had no documents. The couple lived in a common law marriage. After two years, in 2004, Svitlana gave birth to a baby. And again, Svitlana felt helpless in the face of the complex bureaucratic system: she was denied registration of her baby because of the absence of any identity papers. At present, Svitlana is being helped by a nongovernmental organization, one of UNHCR’s implementing partners in Ukraine, - Spryiannia (Assistance) Human Rights Foundation. With the aid of the organization’s lawyers, some steps have already been taken to establish her identity, obtain a permit for the registration of her child, and establish maternity. Further measures are to be taken. These steps will bring her closer to receiving an identity document and let her live a normal and full-fledged life enjoying all her rights and freedoms. To regulate immigration processes, Ukraine signed in the first years of its independence a number of agreements with such countries as the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Pursuant to the Agreements, the parties mutually simplified their procedures of border crossing by citizens of the signatory states. In particular, citizens of the parties had the right to enter into, exit from, and transit the territory of the parties without visas, subject to having documents certifying their identity or confirming their citizenship, including the persons who did not acquire citizenship of other republics generally until 2002. Apart from regulating visa-free travel, the Agreements paid great attention to the matter of statelessness. For example, they simplified the procedure for acquiring, terminating and changing citizenship by citizens of the signatory states. Key principles of the Agreements included prevention of statelessness and of dual citizenship. Similar to the Agreements and based on the principle of reciprocity, there was visa-free border crossing with other post-Soviet countries as well. 16