freedoms and obligations in accordance with the Constitution of the country regardless of how their nationality was obtained, as previously mentioned (Article 4). However, one issue arose at the Focus Groups in both Northern and Southern Kyrgyzstan, there were some children of naturalized Tajik refugees identified who reached the age of 16, and had not received national passports of the Kyrgyz Republic. Authorities referred to the fact that these children were not specifically listed in the decree of the President granting citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic. 3. FAIR PROTECTION PROCESSES AND DOCUMENTATION 3.1 Procedures for the determination of stateless status The status of individuals who have been recognized and documented as stateless persons by the Kyrgyz Republic is determined indirectly through the issuance of residence permits. In other words, there is no system of status determination specifically designed for stateless people. Apart from meeting the general criteria required for the issuance of residence permits, existing status determination is limited to confirmation by embassies or internal affairs bodies in the country of former residence that the person concerned is not a national of that country. Often such requests are not responded to and the decision to recognize a person as stateless is left to the discretion of authorities, as mentioned previously. Therefore, one can only be accorded with the status of a stateless person if they first qualify for a residence permit, (which is common for all aliens who wish to, or already reside in the country); or secondly, if they can prove to have established affiliation to the nationality of the Kyrgyz Republic and meet the requirements. Although not explicitly written, the two mentioned measures help partially address a legal loophole by providing a statelessness status determination method; they however do not address individuals who maybe stateless but who do not meet the general criteria of the procedures. Thus for instance, a stateless person who may possess a certificate from the authorities of a foreign state demonstrating that they are not their national maybe rejected the issuance of a residence permit and consequently a stateless persons’ card if they fail to show a legitimate source of income in the Kyrgyz Republic. Consequently, a person is not identified and documented as stateless, despite all legal evidence indicating that they are stateless. As noted earlier, the development of fair and efficient statelessness status determination procedures is one of the priority areas for the Working Group on nationality issues. Existing legislation and administrative regulations are being examined by the Working Group to explore the possibility of creating statelessness determination procedures without engaging the general law-making process. 3.2 Residence status According to the 2008 Residence Permit Regulations (para. 7) a formal conclusion by the internal affairs bodies is required before a person20 can be granted a residence permit of stateless persons. Although the documents issued to stateless persons are identified and referred to in the law, no established procedures are in place to determine how decisions on issuance or rejection of such documents should be made. 20 According to Article 15 of the 2000 External Migration Law, residence permits in Kyrgyz Republic may either be temporary (give up to 6 months of resi- dence right without a visa) or permanent (over 6 months) even when issued to stateless persons. It follows from this Article that any of these two forms of residence permits maybe issued to a stateless person. However, a stateless persons who obtained temporary residence permit has to leave the country once the validity of the term has expired (ibid. , Article 19). In addition to temporary residence permits, a single or multiple entry visa process is also in place and valid for up to 6 six months of residence in the country. Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic 72