to the 2007 Citizenship Law,11 i.e. some categories of former USSR passport holders, falls under the jurisdiction of the Conflict Commission. More recently, similar Conflict Commissions were created at the district level, to facilitate and accelerate the process of examination of applications for recognition of Kyrgyz nationality and ensure easier access to the citizenship process. Nevertheless, the Conflict Commissions only deal with cases of those who are confirmed as Kyrgyz nationals in accordance with the 2007 Citizenship Law and do not cover other means of acquisition of Kyrgyz nationality through naturalization. For those applying for Kyrgyz citizenship by naturalization, the Ministry of Internal Affairs at their place of residence (provincial), or an embassy consular section for applicants residing outside of the Kyrgyz Republic, accept application packages and undertake preliminary screening. Accepted application packages are then forwarded to the President’s Citizenship Commission via the Department of Passport and Visa Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.12 If the Commission so recommends, the President issues an edict granting nationality. Naturalization, generally serves to reduce statelessness by granting stateless persons a nationality. However, agencies responsible for accepting naturalization applications may only do so if a person is properly and formally documented either as a foreigner or as a stateless person (para. 13 of the 2007 Citizenship Regulations). Thus, for example, internal affairs bodies in Osh province face difficulties in accepting the naturalization application packages of individuals from CIS countries whose foreign passports have expired. At the same time, the authorities in the country of origin often reject passport renewal due to individuals’ failure to fulfil the rules of residents abroad via consular registration. 1.8 Partnerships As previously mentioned, a formal Working Group was established to deal with the issue of statelessness in Kyrgyz Republic. It is composed of representatives from the Ministry of Interior, the Commission on Citizenship Issues at the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, the NGOs Legal Clinic Adilet, Center for International Protection, Fergana Lawyers without Borders and Counterpart Sheriktesh, along with UNHCR. A good level of cooperation and interaction has been established between UNHCR in Bishkek, its field office in Osh, the national authorities, civil society organizations and persons of concern, on matters relating to the reduction and prevention of statelessness and protection of stateless persons. Regular meetings of the Working Group are held, and have resulted in the drafting of concrete recommendations to minimize the gaps in administrative practices of documenting individuals without established nationalities. The Working Group also assisted in promoting, at a ministerial and civil society level, an action plan towards the legal and administrative facilitation of documenting such individuals. It is now considering developing and drafting concrete instructions, which would allow internal affairs bodies to formally identify stateless persons within the existing legal and administrative frameworks. If successful, it would avert the need to create new laws and legal mechanisms. In addition as aforementioned, the Focus Group with stateless people in the North (July 2009) and South (August 2009) of the Kyrgyz Republic were conducted by UNHCR rep11 In addition to the general category of former USSR passport holders who have resided in the territory of Kyrgyz Republic within the last five years (and have permanent propiska to prove it), the following are the other three categories which fall under the operation of Conflict Commissions: - USSR passport holders who had temporary propiska in the Kyrgyz Republic because of the lack of their own accommodation in the territory of the country, temporarily registered in accommodation of their relatives or acquaintances, but who resided in the Kyrgyz Republic for the last five years and do not have stamps of affiliation to the nationality of any other country; - individuals who lost their USSR passports though are registered (have temporary or permanent propiska) and permanently reside in the Kyrgyz Republic; - individuals who could not obtain passports due to unforseen circumstances (or did not fall under the operation of 1993 Citizenship Law, or did not have parents and were brought up by relatives or acquaintances), but permanently resided in the territory of the country. 12 Provisions of the Commission on Issues of Citizenship have been approved by the Presidential Edict No 473 dated 25 October 2007. 59 Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic