Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus sanguinis Provisions

The citizenship law of Bhutan operates solely through jus sanguinis provisions, providing that a person is considered a citizen at birth if both of their parents are Bhutanese citizens, regardless of their place of birth. There is no definition of statelessness included in the citizenship legislation of Bhutan.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

A person can apply for naturalization in Bhutan if they are 21 years of age, have lived in Bhutan for 20 years while registered in the records of the Department of Immigration and Census, “be able to speak, read and write Dzongkha proficiently”, “have good knowledge of the culture, customs, traditions, and history of Bhutan”, have good moral character, and “no record of having spoken or acted against the King, Country, and People of Bhutan in any manner whatsoever”. If the applicant has a Bhutanese parent, they can apply at the age of 15 with a reduced required residency period of 15 years. There is no simplified or expedited process available for stateless persons or refugees.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is not recognized in Bhutan. In order to apply for naturalization, a foreign citizen must renounce their prior citizenship.

Treaty Ratification Status

Bhutan has the lowest rates of treaty ratification in South Asia, and some of the lowest rates across the Asia-Pacific, being one of only five countries that are party to two or less treaties. Bhutan has only ratified the CRC and CEDAW with no reservations. The country has also signed but not ratified the ICERD.

In 2017, the CRC Committee recommended that Bhutan “dissociate birth registration from citizenship and simplify the birth registration procedure after the 12-month period”. Further, the Committee recommended ensuring that “single mothers can register their children and ensure that children born to either a Bhutanese mother or father, including in cases when the identity of the father cannot be ascertained, are granted Bhutanese citizenship”. The Committee also stressed the need for negotiations to ensure the return or resettlement of children living in refugee camps in Nepal and reunite them with their families. As a party to CRC, Bhutan is obligated to ensure all children the right to acquire a nationality as well as that every birth is registered immediately.

During Bhutan’s Universal Periodic Review in 2019, Peru urged the country to eliminate discrimination against ethnic Nepali children, especially regarding access to education and citizenship. Germany also urged Bhutan to work with Nepal to resolve the status of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin. Several other states also provided similar conclusions for Bhutan. Bhutan commented on citizenship matters, stating that “there were clear procedures laid down for the acquisition of citizenship, irrespective of ethnicity, gender or religion”. The country further stated that “more than 10,000 applicants had been granted citizenship since the enactment of the Constitution in 2008”.

Status of Accession of International Human Rights Treaties in South Asia

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

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

Population

Reported Stateless Persons

Bhutan reported zero stateless persons to UNHCR between the years of 2019 and 2022. UNHCR has identified Bhutan as a country which possesses information about stateless persons but lacks any reliable data. While there are no formally reported stateless populations there was concerted focus on the denationalisation and expulsion of Nepali speaking communities, the ‘Lhotshampa’, in the 1980s and –90s. According to the U.S. State Department’s 2022 Human Rights Report, media and civil society have reported the existence of stateless children in Bhutan who are born to unwed mothers and unable to prove the identity of the child’s father.”

Causes of Statelessness

1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

Bhutanese citizenship law does not address access to citizenship for foundlings or children born to stateless parents. The lack of legal safeguards leaves children, particularly members of ethnic minority groups who have been denied citizenship, vulnerable to statelessness. The requirement under the citizenship law of Bhutan that both parents possess Bhutanese nationality has reportedly left some children born to unwed mothers who were unable to prove the identity of the father at the risk of statelessness.

2. Citizenship Stripping and Discriminatory Nationality Laws

In the late 1980s, members of ethnic Nepali communities known as ‘Lhotshampas’ living in the south of the country were labelled as non-citizens through a census count, stripping them of their Bhutanese citizenship. In the early 1990s, the Bhutanese government began expelling persons from their land and the country with as many as 100,000 refugees arriving in Nepal during the 1990s. While most of this population has been resettled in the decades since, in 2022 approximately 6,365 persons remained in refugee camps in Nepal. The most recent estimates of the remaining population of Lhotshampas still living in Bhutan puts the population at 250,000.

3. Administrative Barriers

In Bhutan, in order to access services such as “public health care, employment, access to primary and secondary education, enrollment at institutions of higher education, travel documents, and business ownership”, stateless persons often have to show ‘no objection certificates’ and police security clearance certificates. Stateless persons are often unable to obtain such certificates, limiting their access to these services. Despite this, Bhutan’s National Commission for Women and Children has stated that stateless children do have access to public education and health services.

Bhutan has reported an 88% birth registration rate as of 2022. Children are given a Unique Citizenship Identity at birth which is generated immediately after the birth is registered. Births in Bhutan must be registered within the first 21 days of the date of birth. Documents required for birth registration include a notification of birth or birth document and the parents’ Court Marriage Certificate and the child must be at or under one year of age. Registering a child after they have surpassed one year of age entails a lengthy process of gaining endorsement by local officials and justifying the reason for late registration. It appears that parents who are not married or do not have a Court Marriage Certificate are unable to register the birth of their child. If the parents do not have the Certificate, they must get their marriage endorsed by local authorities to register their child’s birth. This, along with the added procedures for late registration, may present a barrier to birth registration in Bhutan. As the process of birth registration is directly linked to citizenship acquisition in Bhutan, it could leave some children born to unwed parents or requiring late registration vulnerable to statelessness.

Bhutan

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Law