Because they have no proper documentation, these women are unable to leave their husbands if abuse occurs to them in the family. They are not able to live anywhere else, or work independently to support themselves. They also cannot go back to their own country because their national passports have expired and they are not able to renew them. Women in this position are afraid of being turned out of families and homes and therefore keep the lowest profile in the household. The problems of regularising their civil and legal status are reported to have led to a decrease in the number of wives crossing the border to live on Kyrgyz territory in mixed marriages. UNHCR has carried out no specific assessment of SGBV risks among stateless persons elsewhere in the region. In 2009, a UNDP survey of legislation against domestic violence noted that of the five Central Asian states, only Kazakhstan has legislation in place – legislation that UNDP classifies as very “general”. The other four States are said to be in the process of “planning, drafting or reviewing” their first laws against domestic violence. UNDP also describes these laws in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as very “general”.320 The 2009 UNDP survey also assesses the context in which the legislative process is taking place. It finds the situations in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan very similar: laws against domestic violence, rape and marital rape are weak or non-existent. Where they exist, they are generally not enforced. On the other hand, in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the survey finds that laws against domestic violence and rape exist, but are rarely enforced. There are taboos or norms against reporting these crimes that affect the majority of women and often their victims do not know that these are actually reportable crimes. None of the States has a national programme aimed at raising awareness and prevention of SGBV and there is no Government training of law enforcement and executive authorities to respond to SGBV and prevent it. UNHCR and other UN agencies include an SGBV component in their workshops and trainings for public officials and implementing partners. 4.4 Protection of children All five States are parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two Optional Protocols that forbid the use of children in armed conflict and in trafficking and sexual exploitation. In 1997 they issued a Joint Declaration on implementing the Convention across the region321, and four of the five States have since adopted national legislation that incorporates provisions of the Convention.322 Tajikistan set up a National Commission on Child Rights in 2001 and is working on a national action plan with UNICEF. As noted in Section 2 of this study, none of the States in the region have Citizenship Laws which grant nationality to all children born on its territory who would otherwise be stateless, as required by the 1961 Convention and Article 7 of the CRC.323 Children born to stateless or unknown parents generally acquire citizenship in the State where they are born, but as mentioned in Section 2, some States only grant citizenship if the parents are permanent residents. 320 United Nations Development Programme, Beijing Platform for Action + 15 in Europe and CIS, available at europeandcis.undp.org/gender/beijing/show/2EE63E4A-F203-1EE9-BBE2E2A835D18B0E#lawinplace. 321 The Ashgabat Declaration, agreed to at the Inter-Parliamentary Workshop “Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Central Asia and Kazakhstan”, organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Turkmenistan under the sponsorship of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, February 1997. 322 Kazakhstan 2000 Law No 345 ‘On the Rights of the Child’; Turkmenistan 2002 Law ‘On Guarantees of the Rights of the Child’; Kyrgyzstan 2006 Code on Children; Uzbekistan 2008 Law ‘On Guarantees of the Rights of the Child’. 323 As mentioned In Section 2 above, Art.3.1(2) of the 1991 Citizenship Law of Kazakhstan provides that persons who were born in Kazakhstan and are not national of any other country, shall be Kazakh citizens. At the time of publication of this report, UNHCR was not aware whether is provision is implemented in practice to grant nationality to children born on territory who would otherwise be stateless. ~ 49 ~