jeopardize their access for example to housing, or other immovable property and land. Acquisition of Kyrgyz nationality and proper documentation, whether by birth, an act of law or naturalization, would however enable such individuals to enjoy equal access to national programs. 1.11 Public attitudes towards stateless persons Public awareness campaigns for all categories of stateless persons and populations at risk of statelessness have not been organized by central or local authorities. Some efforts, however, have been made by representatives of the above-mentioned NGOs and the the Department of Passport and Visa Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to disseminate information and facilitate the access of stateless persons and individuals at risk of statelessness to confirmation of nationality and naturalization procedures, as previously mentioned in this paper. None of the stateless children that partook in the Focus Group in the North of the country reported incidences of xenophobia when interacting with local populations; the results in the South of the country were similar. Differences in treatment by local communities were not reported by the adults that attended the Focus Groups either. Based on the above, one can conclude that stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness are well integrated into their communities and are not perceived as a burden. Generally this is because they share the same language, social (rural), cultural, religious and ethnic traits and background as those in the local communities that they inhabit. 13 2. PREVENTION AND REDUCTION OF STATELESSNESS 2.1 Prevention and reduction of statelessness due to state succession State succession occurred in the Kyrgyz Republic in 1991, when the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Kyrgyz Republic was adopted and the country gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union as aforementioned. The main criteria for attribution of nationality under the 1993 Citizenship Law was nationality of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic for those that did not declare themselves as citizens of any other state and permanently resided in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic on the day of adoption of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Kyrgyz Republic, i.e. 15 December 1990. In addition, all those who were nationals of the Kyrgyz Republic after the Declaration on State Sovereignty but did not lose their nationality at the time that the 1993 Citizenship Law went into force on 18 February 1994, were automatically recognized as nationals of the Kyrgyz Republic. As mentioned elsewhere in this paper, the 2007 Citizenship Law eliminated deadlines, and holders of USSR passports who had not claimed the nationality of any other state and permanently resided in the country for the last five years were now considered as nationals of the Kyrgyz Republic (Article 5). According to the southern survey, in 2008 approximately 1,229 holders of former USSR passports were documented as nationals of the Kyrgyz Republic. The work of documenting this category continues, as more than a half of stateless persons are former USSR passport holders as previously mentioned. 2.2 Comprehensive strategies to prevent and reduce statelessness There was no comprehensive national policy to prevent and reduce statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic. The existing legal frameworks do not comprehensively respond to differ13 The Northern Focus Group targeted ethnic Kyrgyz groups (including some mix marriages) mainly from Tajikistan. The gender and age groups presented at the assessment have been divided between 4-13 years of age (children group), women between 18 -40 years of age (one elderly woman of 84 years old) and men between 41-60 years of age. 61 Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic