zenship is a lack of conviction for committing crimes, if the Kyrgyz Republic accedes to the 1961 Convention legislation must ensure that criteria for acquisition of citizenship fall within those permissible under the Convention. • Renunciation, loss and deprivation of citizenship a) A general conclusion from analysis of the Kyrgyz Republic’s legislation on this issue is that the legal system of the Kyrgyz Republic provides minimum grounds for ending citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic, and gives more guarantees to citizens for preserving their citizenship than the 1961 Convention. b) Legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic does not use a concept of “deprivation of nationality”. The process of “loss of citizenship”, as envisaged in Article 26 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic in practice contains deprivation of nationality in the sense of the 1961 Convention, rather than loss of nationality. The abovementioned Law envisages just two scenarios for deprivation of citizenship out of the four allowed under Article 8 of the 1961 Convention, which means there are strong guarantees of preserving citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic. Here it should be borne in mind that if Kyrgyzstan accedes to the 1961 Convention, it should state that it retains the right to deprive citizenship in the first scenario, as is already provided for in Law, as is required by Article 8, Point 3 of the 1961 Convention. Otherwise this would not have legal force. c) Legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic does not envisage any of the conditions in the Convention for loss of citizenship, except for voluntrary renunciation of citizenship by means of a personal application to the President of the country. This indicates that a citizen of Kyrgyz Republic without a clearly expressed freely made decision cannot lose his/her citizenship based on any changes either in personal status or in place of residence. What is more, if a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic acquires another citizenship, this does not imply a loss of citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic (Article 6, Point 2 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic). • Other issues a) The Convention provisions concerning such issues as transfer of territory, international agency, disputes, reservations and the Final Act mainly concern general procedural questions which need to be taken into account on accession of Kyrgyzstan to the Convention. b) The content of Article 11 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic envisages the conclusion of international agreements on issues of citizenship and the supremacy of these agreements over the norms of national law. This indicates that the Kyrgyz Republic is prepared for regulation of issues of citizenship through international agreements and treaties. The existence of an Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation on a simplified procedure for acquiring citizenship by citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic with permanent residence in the Russian Federation, and by citizens of the Russian Federation with permanent residence in the Kyrgyz Republic, and exiting from their previous citizenship, as well as willingness to dialogue with other CIS States, underlines that the policy of Kyrgyzstan is to prevent statelessness in such situations, consistent with the object and purpose of the 1961 Convention. c) The protection mechanism established under Article 14 of the Convention through the International Court of Justice is extremely effective, as this is one of the most authoritative international juridical bodies, and thus acceptable for the Kyrgyz Republic. d) With regard to the articles of the 1961 Convention to which reservations are allowed, there is no need for Kyrgyzstan to make these. 35 Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic