Representatives of the governments of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan gathered today in Tashkent to reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that every child is registered at birth in their territories.

The capital of Uzbekistan is hosting a Central Asian conference on preventing statelessness. It is organized by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in cooperation with the National Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Human Rights.

The problem of statelessness affects millions of people around the world, including more than 37,000 in Central Asia alone. Stateless people are often deprived of basic rights such as education, employment, healthcare, and freedom of movement.

“We are proud to hold this conference today and share with the participants the successful practices of the Republic of Uzbekistan in registering births to eradicate statelessness”, said Akmal Saidov, First Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Director of the National Center for Human Rights. “In 2018, Uzbekistan amended its legislation to guarantee birth registration for all children, and in the last five years alone, we have reduced the number of stateless persons by more than 75 percent”.

Conference participants represented national administrations responsible for or involved in birth registration, including ministries of foreign affairs, internal affairs, justice, and national human rights institutions, as well as international organizations.

N. Usmanova, UzA