Access to Refugee Status Determination Procedures 31. The Kyrgyz Republic expressed a commitment in the outcome document of the third High Level Steering Meeting on Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Bishkek on 15 December 2017 to accede to the two Statelessness Conventions and to establish a formal status determination procedure for stateless persons, with a view to facilitating timely resolution of statelessness in the country. 32. Following the CERD’s 2018 Concluding Observations,20 Kyrgyzstan continues to apply a discriminatory approach in granting access to State registration and refugee status determination (RSD) procedures. Uighurs from China who seek asylum are not issued any documents by the Government certifying their legal stay in the country. They are therefore at heightened risk of denial of their rights, police harassment and refoulement.21 33. Asylum-seekers arriving from Uzbekistan are also discriminated against. They may only register their asylum claim in Kyrgyzstan, and are issued an asylum-seeker certificate, but no further assessment and decision on their refugee claim is undertaken.22 34. The recognition rate for applicants to the State RSD procedures is also low. The low recognition rate is often justified on the basis of national security concerns, and political and migration control considerations of the Kyrgyz authorities. This prevents persons with international protection needs from effectively accessing their basic rights under international law.23 Deprivation of Citizenship 35. Concerns related to deprivation of citizenship were raised in the Concluding Observation of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (30 May 2018, CERD/C/KGZ/CO/810), which recommended that the Kyrgyz Republic ensures that the new draft citizenship law include safeguards against statelessness in the event of deprivation of citizenship, and provide for due process guarantees, including the possibility to appeal against decisions to remove citizenship. 36. Following the amendment to the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic in December 2016 that permitted deprivation of nationality (Article 50), the government has initiated drafting of a new Constitutional Law on Deprivation of Citizenship which prescribes citizenship deprivation on the grounds of participation in acts related to terrorism, funding terrorist activities, treason, espionage, separatism, extremism, and fighting as mercenaries. 37. According to the draft Law, the decision on deprivation of citizenship is to be made by the court as part of the criminal proceedings and is sent to the State Registration Service (SRS) for implementation, while the President makes decisions on granting citizenship. 20 Concluding observations on the combined eighth to tenth period reports of Kyrgyzstan, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 30 May 2018, CERD/C/KGZ/CO/8-10, [30]. 21 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Universal Periodic Review: Kyrgyzstan (Report, 2014). 22 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Universal Periodic Review: Kyrgyzstan (Report, 2014). 23 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Universal Periodic Review: Kyrgyzstan (Report, 2014). 7