. Identification re ention and reduction o state essness determination. By November 2016, the Government had registered about 12,000 applications and had resolved nearly 9,000 cases with documentation, citizenship acquisition or determination. See UNHCR Good Practices Paper – Action 1: Resolving Existing Major Situations of Statelessness, 2015, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/54e75a244.html UNHCR News, Kyrgyzstan restores documentation for 9,000 citizens, Updates National Action Plan on Eradication of Statelessness, 11 November 2016, available at: http://unhcr.kz/eng/news-of-the-region/news/2619/ V.3. Reduction – seeking solutions for stateless populations Major statelessness situations are often linked to the failure to include specific groups at the time of independence or dissolution of a State, sometimes for discriminatory reasons. These situations are generally of a protracted nature. One particular focus of UNHCR has been on assisting States in finding definitive solutions to such protracted statelessness situations98 and a central goal of UNHCR’s Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 20142024 is to resolve existing major situations of statelessness. States have increasingly recognized the negative impact of statelessness on the enjoyment of a broad range of human rights, including the right to work, health, and education as well as the right to birth registration and identity documentation. These negative impacts are also of increasing concern from the perspectives of economic and social development and human security. As a result, a growing number of States have taken steps to resolve protracted situations, and recent developments in a number of countries point to the likelihood of improvements in the coming years. Some States have resolved situations in which large numbers of people are stateless by amending the rules for acquisition of nationality so that stateless persons are automatically considered nationals, provided that they fulfil specific objective criteria that demonstrate their strong links to the country. Most commonly, these criteria cover stateless individuals born in the territory or resident there before a specific date (or who are descended from such persons). This is usually the most effective way to resolve 69