the South of the Kyrgyz Republic also noted that some members of the Lyuli community in Osh province are at risk of statelessness in Kyrgyzstan due to lack of identity documents. 1.3 International & Regional Instruments The Central Asian States have all ratified universal human rights instruments that commit them to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to a nationality and a range of human rights that are to be enjoyed by stateless persons. These are, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention Against Torture. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are also parties to the 1995 CIS Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – the so-called “Minsk Convention” – which proclaims the right to a nationality, the right to change nationality, and freedom from arbitrary deprivation of nationality. But the Convention has only been ratified by four States. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are States party to the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women. None of the Central Asian States is party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (the 1954 Convention), or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (the 1961 Convention). 1.4 National Legal Framework The nationality legislation of each country states that citizenship is equal for all, regardless of how they acquired it.11 It defines who is a stateless person and the grounds and procedures for acquisition, renunciation, loss and deprivation of citizenship. Each country has, in addition, a law on the legal status of foreigners, a term which includes stateless persons. Rules for entry and departure, and for documenting the stay of foreigners are set down in Residence Regulations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and in the Migration laws of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. These countries also have laws on education, pensions and social welfare and health that set out the rights of stateless persons to these services. 1.5 The Definition of a Stateless Person in National Laws The 1954 Convention defines a ‘stateless person’ as a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. The definition is recognized as forming part of customary international law. The citizenship law of each Central Asian State defines a stateless person as someone “without the nationality of the state, who has no proof of affiliation to any other nationality”.12 This definition is wider in scope than the international definition of a stateless person, as it can be – and often is – interpreted as including people who are citizens of a state but do not have proof of this, regardless of whether they could obtain it. 11 Article 5, 1992 Citizenship Law of Turkmenistan; Article 1, 1995 Citizenship Law of Tajikistan; Article 4(4), 2007 Law on Citizenship of Kyrgyzstan; Article 5, 1991 Citizenship Law of Kazakhstan, as amended in 2009. 12 These are: Article 14c), 1995 Citizenship Law of Tajikistan; Article 6 of the 1992 Citizenship Law of Turkmenistan and Article 1 of the 2005 Migration Law of Turkmenistan, as amended in 2011; Article 3 of the 2007 Citizenship Law of Kyrgyzstan; and Article 1 of the 2000 External Migration Law of Kazakhstan, Article 6 of the 1991 Citizenship Law of Kazakhstan and Article 1 of the 1995 Law No 2337 ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners in Kazakhstan’. ~7~