“International treaties and agreements to which the Kyrgyz Republic is a Party that have come into force and general principles and norms of international law are component parts of the legal system of the Kyrgyz Republic.” The Kyrgyz Republic advocates for complete observance of the norms of international law and supports its pre-eminence as the basic principle of international law – the principle of fulfilling international obligations in good faith.” In this way, the following international legal sources are parts of the legal system of the Kyrgyz Republic: 1. Universally recognised principles and norms of international law; 2. International treaties and agreements to which the Kyrgyz Republic is a Party. Universally recognised principles and norms of international law: The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic introduces universally recognised principles of international law into the legal system of the Kyrgyz Republic. International law does not include documents which make exhaustive lists of universally recognised principles. Such principles are enshrined in the UN Charter, the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations of 24 October 1970, the Final Helsinki Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of 1 August 1975, and other documents. It is important to note that there is no full agreement on which principles of international law are universally recognised. Therefore, the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic only includes in its legal system those universally recognised principles that the country accepts as such. Universally recognised (customary) norms of international law are created as the result of repeated practice of states and become international legal norms for those countries that accept them as such. An example of this is the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by a UN General Assembly resolution, the articles of which became customary international law as a result of its adoption. International agreements: In accordance with Article 5 of the Law On International Agreements of the Kyrgyz Republic, agreement of the Kyrgyz Republic to obligations under an international agreement can be indicated in the following ways: • • • • • • signing of an agreement; exchange of notes or letters, resulting from the agreement; ratification of the agreement; approval of the agreement; accession to the agreement; in any other way indicating acceptance of the requirements agreed to by the parties to the agreement. The relationship between international agreements and the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic is the most important issue in defining the place of international norms among the sources of law of the Kyrgyz Republic. Analysis of the text of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Law On International Agreements of the Kyrgyz Republic and other laws testifies to the fact that the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic “has supreme juridical force” on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. International agreements that have not come into force, whose provisions do not correspond to the Constitution, should not come into force and application. In various laws1 there are articles which state that international law has priority if it is in conflict with internal legal norms. In most laws of the Kyrgyz Republic this is formulated in the following way: 1 See: Article 6 of the Civil Code of the Kyrgyz Republic (Part 1) of 8 May 1996 no.15; Article 3 of the Labour Code of 4 August 2004 no.106; Article 5 of the Customs Code of the Kyrgyz Republic of 12 July 2004 no. 87; Article 7 of the Air Code of the Kyrgyz Republic of 15 April 1994 no. 1483-XII; Article 1 (point 3) of the Civil Process Code of the Kyrgyz Republic of 29 December 1999 no. 146; Article 7 of the Family Code of the Kyrgyz Republic of 30 August 2003 no. 201; Article 52 of the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic On Education of 30 April 2003 no. 92; Article 3 (2) of the Criminal –Executive Code of the Kyrgyz Republic of 13 December 1999 no. 142 and others. Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic 22