On November 8, the Ministerial Conference "Eradication of Statelessness in Central Asia" was held at the Yildiz Hotel in the capital.
The Conference was organized by the Government of Turkmenistan and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with the participation of representatives of the Governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as UN agencies and international organizations.
The work of the international conference took place within the framework of 5 plenary sessions, during which the heads and representatives of delegations, UNHCR and other UN agencies, international organizations and the diplomatic corps exchanged experiences and demonstrated commitment to international initiatives, special attention of States to resolving the situation and readiness to continue work in subsequent formats.
Within the framework of the conference, the results of the ten-year UN global campaign #IBelong ("I Belong") in Central Asia were summarized.
It was noted in the speeches that Central Asia occupies a leading position in the world in solving the problem of statelessness, and Turkmenistan and the Kyrgyz Republic are the only countries in the world that have resolved all known cases of statelessness.
It was emphasized that Turkmenistan, being a permanent member of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Program, officially announced its accession to the Global Alliance for the Eradication of Statelessness during its 75th session.
Becoming the first country in the region to unconditionally accede to two UN Conventions on Statelessness, establishing new procedures for determining the status of stateless persons and ensuring one hundred percent birth registration, including for undocumented persons, Turkmenistan was one of the first in the world to eliminate all existing cases of statelessness.
Today, the country has successfully completed the #IBelong campaign, becoming one of the leaders of regional and global initiatives on statelessness.
The participants concluded that the Ashgabat conference has become an important platform for a broad dialogue at a key stage in the transition of countries to a Global Alliance in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.
As a result of the Ministerial Conference "Eradication of Statelessness in Central Asia", a final document was adopted.
