Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus Sanguinis and Jus Soli Provisions

National legislation on citizenship in Turkmenistan includes both jus soli and jus sanguinis provisions.

Article 4(5) of the Law of Turkmenistan on the Citizenship of Turkmenistan enacted in 2013 specifically mentions that one of the principles which citizenship of Turkmenistan is based on is “prevention and reduction of statelessness”. Children born to two parents (or a single parent) who are citizens of Turkmenistan will be a citizen regardless of birthplace. If a child is born to one citizen parent and one stateless parent, missing parent, or unknown parent, the law provides that they will also be a citizen regardless of birthplace. For children born to one parent who is a citizen and one parent who is a foreigner, the child will be a citizen if born within the territory of Turkmenistan. If in the same case, the child was born outside of the territory, the child may still be eligible for citizenship if at least one parent is a habitual resident of Turkmenistan at the time of birth. In the same case, if neither of the child’s parents are habitual residents, a joint application must be filed by the parents for citizenship of the child. This provision, included in Article 11(1.5), further protects children in these circumstances by stating that if the child would otherwise be stateless, they will be granted citizenship of Turkmenistan.

Stateless persons are defined in Article 8 of the ‑ as “persons who are not citizens of Turkmenistan and who have no proof of possessing the citizenship of any foreign state”. This definition does not align with international standards as it places the burden of proof on stateless persons, who often do not have and are unable to obtain documentation proving absence of nationality elsewhere.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

Any “capable person” who is 18 years of age or older is eligible to apply for Turkmen citizenship as stipulated in Article 12 of the Law on Citizenship. To do so, the individual must abide by the Constitution and laws of Turkmenistan, be able to communicate in the official language, be a habitual resident in the territory for five years, and have a legal source of income. Habitual residency is accepted as long as the individual has not left the country for longer than a three month period in one year.

A shortened period of habitual residence is accepted for Turkmen people and their descendents, former citizens of the USSR, those with outstanding achievements, persons granted asylum, and refugees, among others. This notably does not include stateless persons. Article 32 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons provides that such a process should be expedited for stateless persons to “reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings”.

Status of Accession Of International Human Rights Treaties

Country	Stateless 1	Stateless 2	Refugee	ICCPR	ICESCR	ICERD	CRC	CEDAW
Turkmenistan

Signifies that the country is a party to the convention

Stateless 1 – 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Signifies that the country is not a party to the convention

Stateless 2 – 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

c. Dual Citizenship

Provisions regarding dual citizenship are included in Article 5 of the Law. Article 5(2) states that dual citizenship is not recognized, and that a citizen of Turkmenistan who holds the nationality of another state “shall be regarded exceptionally as a citizen of Turkmenistan”. The Law does not provide provisions on the process of renunciation of previous citizenship of a different state when applying for Turkmen citizenship.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

Article 3(2) of the Law of Turkmenistan on Citizenship of Turkmenistan states that “if an international treaty of Turkmenistan establishes rules that differ from those stipulated in the present Law, the rules of the international treaty shall be applied.”

Turkmenistan is one of only three states in the entire Asia-Pacific region to achieve perfect treaty ratification status. Turkmenistan has ratified all international treaties pertaining to statelessness with no reservations and is the first and only country in Central Asia to have ratified the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The 1954 Convention includes protections of the rights to education, employment, housing, identity, travel documents, and administrative assistance. Adding to this, the 1961 Convention seeks to prevent and eventually end statelessness, including protections for the right to nationality for every person ensures proper legal safeguards in nationality laws to prevent statelessness. The 1961 Convention also protects children who would otherwise be stateless by ensuring their citizenship in their country of birth if they are not eligible for citizenship elsewhere.

In 2018, the CERD Committee in its concluding observations recommended that Turkmenistan improve its data collection and reporting of stateless persons and expedite the process of eliminating statelessness within its territory. Additionally, in 2018, the CEDAW Committee in its concluding observations noted the need for improving statistics on the stateless population and improving the statelessness determination procedure in Turkmenistan, particularly due to compounded marginalization of stateless women and girls.

As a party to the ICCPR, Turkmenistan is bound to protect freedom of movement. Reports that the Turkmenistan government has been requesting citizens to give up their passports and hault applications for passports, the main citizenship certifying document in Turkmenistan, are in direct violation of its obligations to the ICCPR.

Population

1. Reported Stateless Persons

UNHCR reported 4,527 stateless persons in Turkmenistan in 2022. This shows an increase of 247 reported stateless persons since 2021, but a decrease by 187 people since the beginning of 2019. These reported numbers have been derived from reports from UNHCR partners in Turkmenistan because UNHCR does not have an office in Turkmenistan and there are no official statistics available on the stateless population.

With the dissolution of the USSR, millions of people across Central Asia became stateless as a result of loss of USSR citizenship. Today, many of the reported stateless population in Turkmenistan is made up of individuals who have not been able to obtain citizenship of the new successor state. Unfortunately, due to lack of freedom of information and the absence of a UNHCR office in Turkmenistan, both qualitative and quantitative data on statelessness in the country is limited.

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

There have been multiple reports of state authorities ordering citizens of Turkmenistan to give up their passports and not apply for new ones as an attempt to restrict freedom of movement by the government. This could place people at risk of statelessness considering that the main citizenship certifying document in Turkmenistan is the passport.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Turkmenistan	4,714	3,924	4,280	4,527

Source: UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022.

3. Turkmenistan’s Pledges to End Statelessness

In 2019, the Turkmenistan government established the National Action Plan to End Statelessness intended to resolve all existing cases of statelessness and ensure proper legal safeguards against statelessness by 2024. Unfortunately, as of 2022, the reported stateless population in Turkmenistan is still quite high, as discussed in the Population section, making the possibility of following through on this pledge slim.

Turkmenistan also made three pledges pertaining to statelessness at the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in 2019. The pledges include commitments to undertake a widespread registration campaign to register and improve statistics on stateless persons and ensure that all stateless persons have a fundamental right to citizenship, resolve all identified cases of statelessness, and redefine the definition of the status of stateless persons and end the risk of statelessness for children of undocumented people by realizing the National Action Plan in the upcoming 2022 Population Census. To date, there have been no improvements in the identification of stateless persons or on official statistics for the stateless population. As mentioned above, identified cases of statelessness have yet to be fully resolved in Turkmenistan. A new definition of the status of stateless persons has also not yet been solidified in national legislation. Commendably, however, Turkmenistan has taken steps towards ensuring universal birth registration for all children in the country, especially those born to undocumented parents.

Causes of Statelessness

1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

Turkmenistan’s citizenship legislation does not provide access to citizenship for children born to two stateless parents either of whom do not qualify as habitual residents of the territory. This lack of protection enhances the risk of intergenerational statelessness. For children born to two stateless persons within the territory, the child will be a citizen if at least one parent is habitually resident in the territory. The Law also provides that a child born in the territory to two foreign citizen parents who is not granted citizenship of the state(s) of the parents citizenship, will be a citizen of Turkmenistan. Foundling children born or resident in Turkmenistan will also be citizens provided that the whereabouts and citizenship of the parents are unknown. Further, if a citizen of Turkmenistan is found to be the father of a child with a stateless mother, the child will be a citizen regardless of birthplace.

2. Citizenship Stripping

Article 4 of Turkmenistan’s citizenship law states that citizens cannot be deprived of their citizenship. Appealing other decisions relating to nationality is possible by lodging a complaint addressed to the President of Turkmenistan, who may revise the decision.

3. Administrative Barriers

In January 2020, the new Law on Civil Status Acts, came into force ensuring universal birth registration and prevention of childhood statelessness. Before the introduction of the Law, children born to parents who were undocumented, stateless, or who had undetermined nationalities had low access to birth registration due to the requirement of parents to show documentation to register their child’s birth. Turkmenistan’s reported birth registration rate is 99.9% .

The Constitution states that citizenship certifying documents in Turkmenistan are a passport of a citizen of Turkmenistan or another government- issued document confirming nationality. For children under 16, nationality can be confirmed by either a birth certificate or passport of one of their parents who is a citizen of Turkmenistan. Therefore, while birth registration is not required in all cases to gain citizenship in Turkmenistan, it is important to have it in the event of loss of passport and for children under 16 who have not yet applied for their passport. On this, reports of state authorities requesting citizens to give up their passports is problematic for ensuring everyone in the country has the necessary documentation to certify citizenship. In Lebap province in particular, state authorities also reportedly urged state employees to refrain from applying for a passport. In some cases, passports have also been confiscated by employers without providing explanation for the confiscation.

Turkmenistan

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Law