“If international agreements of the Kyrgyz Republic establish different rules than those set out in this law, then the rules of the international agreement are applied.” This fact that international agreements have supremacy in no way changes any norms in the internal law of the state. It means that this norm of internal law does not have primacy over a particular international agreement of Kyrgyzstan. In regulating the relationship with other foreign States, the norms of internal State law continue to apply. In this way, constitutional norms reveal that international legal norms are recognised in internal activities and can be directly applied by courts and other state bodies, economic actors, officials and citizens. Such a conclusion can be made by reading Article 12 Point 3 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic in the context of other constitutional norms and numerous other legislative acts of the Kyrgyz Republic considered along with the application of international norms. However, despite significant developments on nationality in international law and practice, the international community is today faced with numerous situations where cases of statelessness appear and there is a lack of opportunity to ascertain citizenship. For example, as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, “Soviet citizenship” became meaningless. At that time, the majority of the new-formed states already had their own legislation on issues of citizenship and had defined the initial composition of their citizenry. However, differing criteria for defining eligibility for citizenship; different dates of coming into force of laws and, consequently, different ways of determining the period of settlement, habitual or permanent residence; as well as discrimination on ethnic grounds in the laws of some of the new-formed states, led to the phenomenon of statelessness. Resolving issues of nationality and preventing the spread of statelessness is complicated by the fact that in all countries of the CIS, population migration continues, and the citizenship of these migrants is not always defined. Therefore there is indisputably a need to have an ongoing policy for the prevention and reduction of statelessness. Resolution of this problem is important to ensure the equality of all persons living in individual states, as dividing people into citizens and non-citizens often leads to conflict. Stateless persons are not in possession of full political and civil rights in any state. Therefore their legal capacities are always limited to some extent. But problems do not just arise because of laws of succession in states where legislation accordingly changes, but also in regions where there have not been changes in legislation in recent years, and where there has been no transfer of territory. Problems arise for persons who have resided for a long period on the territory of a state, for representatives of ethnic minorities, and for a small number of women and children who become stateless because their husbands or parents are stateless. Thus, the factors or circumstances which can lead or have led to statelessness are as follows2: 1. Conflict of laws (for example, State A, in which the individual is born, grants nationality by descent (jus sanguinis) and State B, in which the parents hold nationality, grants nationality by birth (jus soli) resulting in statelessness for the individual; 2. Transfer of territory (including issues such as post-colonialism, state independence, dissolution, succession or restoration). 3. Laws relating to marriage and birth registration. 4. Administrative practice. 5. Discrimination. 6. Jus sanguinis (nationality based solely on descent, often only of the father, which in some regions results in the inheritance of statelessness). 7. Loss and deprivation of nationality. 2 See UNHCR Division of International Protection, Information and Accession Package: The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, November 1998. 23 Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic