presumably to deter people from separating fecklessly. In Kazakhstan, for example, the cost of registering a divorce is more than six times the cost of registering marriage.277 Tajik law contains a provision to protect the wives in registered marriages from hardship through abandonment. A husband cannot file for divorce without his wife’s agreement when she is pregnant or if she has given birth within the preceding 18 months.278 No similar protection appears to exist in the legislation of the other four States. Because of migration flows throughout the region, many stateless women prevented from marrying officially through lack of documentation are known to be living in unregistered marriages in Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. UNHCR believes there are others in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. None of the five States gives “informal” or common law marriages legal validity. The social and economic position of women in such marriages is precarious and outlined in Chapters 4 and 5 of this report. Partners who are not married officially, also have no recourse to the rights and compensations of divorce. Stateless women in unregistered matrimonies concluded by traditional religious observance – so called nikoh marriages – are made particularly vulnerable as a result. Their matrimonial contract can be broken unilaterally and without compensation, by their common-law husband, if he utters the word taloh three times.279 The death of a stateless person is registered on the same basis as the death of a citizen and in four of the States the process is exempt from stamp duty.280 The regulations on stamp duty in Turkmenistan are not readily available and so could not be confirmed. In all five countries, ‘stateless’ is entered under the nationality column on the death certificate. The ZAGS office registering a death in Kyrgyzstan issues the person reporting the death with a death certificate and a promissory note towards funeral expenses. These appear to be issued equally to the survivors of a stateless person, and of a citizen.281 Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan all confiscate the residence permit of stateless persons who have died, and notify the relevant Department of Internal Affairs.282 In order to register a death, ZAGS offices in all five States require a copy of the birth certificate, or equivalent, of the person who has died. Many stateless people in the region have not been registered at birth.283 It seems very possible, therefore, that the deaths of some stateless children and adults may also go unregistered.284 277 Article 6, 1996 Law No 631 ‘On Stamp Duty of Kazakhstan’. Stamp duty in Kazakhstan is proportional. The cost of registering a divorce by mutual consent of a couple with no young children is 200%, while the cost of registering marriage is 30%. 278 Article 17, 1998 Family Code of Tajikistan, No 682. 279 See, for instance, Amnesty International, Violence is Not Just a Family Affair: Women Face Abuse in Tajikistan, London, 24 November 2009, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR60/001/2009/en. Also, a case reported in Institute of War and Peace Reporting, Divorce Leaves Tajik Women Out In the Cold, 5 March 2010, available at http://www.iwpr.net/fa/node/38831. 280 Article 31(3), 2008 Law No 483 ‘On the Registration of Civil Acts’ in Tajikistan; Article 166(2), 1998 Marriage and Family Law of Kazakhstan, No 241; Article 6, Supplement No 1, 1999 Law No 171 ‘On the Registration of Civil Acts of Uzbekistan’; Article 5, 2001 Rules No 91 ‘On the Registration of Civil Status Acts in Kyrgyzstan’. 281 Articles 16, 2001 Rules No 91 ‘On the Registration of Civil Status Acts in Kyrgyzstan’. 282 Article 202, 1999 Government Decree No 620, ‘On the Procedure for Registering Civil Status Acts’ in Kazakhstan; Article 132, Supplement No 1, 1999 Law No 171 ‘On the Registration of Civil Acts of Uzbekistan’; Article 17, 2001 Rules No 91 ‘On the Registration of Civil Status Acts in Kyrgyzstan’. 283 Please see Section 2.5. Low birth registration in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan was a cause for concern to UN agencies during the last decade. 284 UNHCR interview with a UNFPA official in Dushanbe, 2009. ~ 42 ~