This study was commissioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the context of a regional project on statelessness. The project culminated with a Regional Conference on Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness and Protection of Stateless Persons in Central Asia, which was hosted jointly by UNHCR and the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat (9-10 December 2009, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan). The research for this study was conducted by Marjorie Farquharson, Consultant with UNHCR. The views expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNHCR. The information provided in this study has been extracted from existing documents, reports and studies and is also based on field studies conducted by the author in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in September 2009. Please note that the verification of information compiled from these sources remains the responsibility of the respective author. ~2~