A regional roundtable discussion has taken place on statelessness reduction and prevention in Central Asia.

The event was organized by the National Center for Human Rights of the Republic of Uzbekistan together with the UNHCR.

It was attended by representatives of state bodies of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, offices of the Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR experts and other UN agencies and civil society organizations dealing with issues of citizenship and statelessness.

The experts welcomed Uzbekistan's efforts to eradicate statelessness. In particular, they welcomed the initiatives of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the 46th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Uzbekistan's commitment to international standards in reducing statelessness.

Experts considered international standards for the reduction and prevention of statelessness, assessed the overall progress in the eradication of statelessness in Central Asia, as well as presented the experience of different countries in this sphere.

The existing gaps in addressing the problem of statelessness, the legislative amendments necessary to address them, and the implementation of the commitments made by the Central Asian States at the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in Geneva in October 2019 were also discussed.

UzA