Loss of nationality according to Articles 5 and 6, and points 4 and 5 of Article 7 of the 1961 Convention could be a consequence of changes in personal status (marriage, termination of marriage, legitimation, recognition, adoption, possession of familial ties) which is not connected to guilty conduct against the state of nationality. Such loss of nationality should only occur after acquisition or an assurance to acquire another nationality. Exceptions can be made in cases of naturalized persons who reside for not less than 7 uninterrupted years abroad without informing the appropriate authorities about the desire to preserve one’s nationality, or in the case of persons born outside the boundaries of the territory of the state of nationality after one year has passed after attaining the age of majority. The legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic does not provide for any of these Conventional conditions for loss of citizenship except for voluntary renunciation of citizenship by means of delivering a personal request to the President of the country. This all suggests that a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic without clearly expressed free will cannot lose his/her citizenship based on any changes either of personal status or of place of residence. What is more, acquiring citizenship of another state by a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic does not lead to an ending of citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic (Article 6, point 2 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic). Another ground for ending citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic is provided for in Article 23 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic. This ground comes into force on the basis of an interstate agreement of which the Kyrgyz Republic is a party. Such an agreement of the Kyrgyz Republic with other states plays an important role in regulating issues of citizenship. Examples of this type of document are the Agreement between the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation on simplified procedures for obtaining citizenship of 26 February 1999 (which came into force on 4 November 2000) and the Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan on simplified procedures for obtaining citizenship of 26 May 2004. Based on the above, the conclusion can be made that the legal framework of the Kyrgyz Republic provides minimum grounds for ending of the citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic and gives greater guarantees to citizens for preserving citizenship of the country than the 1961 Convention. 2.2.3 Other issues This section looks at provisions of the 1961 Convention such as transfer of territory, international organisation, dispute resolution, reservations and the final provisions, and what they would mean for the Kyrgyz Republic if it acceded to the Convention. These Convention provisions concern general procedural questions and should be borne in mind when acceding to the 1961 Convention. Article 10 of the Convention requires that Contracting States on changes to their territory (transfer or acquisition of territory) include provisions in treaties designed to secure that no person shall become stateless as a result of the transfer. Article 11 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic states that citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic can also be acquired based on procedures provided for under interstate agreements that have come into force. This article, which foresees the conclusion of international agreements on issues of citizenship and the supremacy of such agreements over the norms of national law, allows the conclusion to be made that the Kyrgyz Republic is ready for regulating issues of citizenship on the basis of agreements and treaties concluded. This is testified to by the Agreement of 26 March 1996 between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation on simplified procedures for acquiring citizenship for citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic permanently residing in the Russian Federation, and for citizens of the Russian Federation permanently residing in the Kyrgyz Republic, and ending their previous citizenship. The existence of such a Kyrgyzstani-Russian Agreement testifies to 33 Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic

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