registration of citizenship or who have not been recognized as citizens of Tajikistan to appeal the decision in court within one month.201 2.8 Exercise of Nationality in Practice Formally, a person becomes a citizen by naturalization in each of the five States with the publication of the Presidential decree that confers the citizenship.202 In practice new citizens start to exercise their nationality once they have received a national passport. The procedures for awarding passports vary from State to State. The nationality laws of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan say that citizenship is one and equal, irrespective of the grounds on which it was acquired.203 In all five countries, however, the actual situation of people who were formerly stateless, has yet to be assessed. There is no comprehensive information about how each has been able to exercise rights that generally flow from citizenship. There has also been little research into discrimination such persons may experience on account of their former statelessness. 201 Article 41, 1991 Citizenship Law of Kazakhstan; Articles 52 and 53, 1995 Citizenship Law of Tajikistan; Article 47, 1992 Citizenship Law of Turkmenistan; Article 44, 1992 Citizenship Law of Uzbekistan; Article 42, 2007 Citizenship Law of Kyrgyzstan. 202 Article 39, 1992 Citizenship Law of Uzbekistan; Article 48, 1995 Citizenship Law of Tajikistan, which also says that in cases involving registration, citizenship begins when the competent organ other than the President has decided it should; Article 38, 1992 Citizenship Law of Turkmenistan; Article 37(3), 2007 Citizenship Law of Kyrgyzstan; Article 15, 1991 Citizenship Law of Kazakhstan. 203 Article 2, 1992 Citizenship Law of Uzbekistan; Article 5, 1992 Citizenship Law of Turkmenistan; Article 4(4), 2007 Citizenship Law of Kyrgyzstan; Article 5, 1991 Citizenship Law of Kazakhstan. ~ 31 ~