Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus Sanguinis Provisions

The citizenship legislation of Nepal operates through jus sanguinis provisions, which contain gender discriminatory elements. Nepal citizenship legislation is governed by both the 2015 Constitution of Nepal and the 2006 Nepal Citizenship Act which provides that a person born to a Nepali father or mother shall have citizenship by descent. Despite a provision specifically providing men and women equal rights to confer citizenship to their children, the subsequent provisions in the constitution curtail the rights of women and further categorize children based on the nationality or traceability of the father. There is no definition of statelessness included in Nepal’s citizenship law.

The Nepal Citizenship (First Amendment) Bill (2079) provided pathways for previously excluded groups to gain citizenship. Despite the President of Nepal twice refusing to sign the amendment, it was finally enacted in May 2023. While the amendment has generally ensured wider access to citizenship, it still contains gender discriminatory aspects which are discussed in greater depth below.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

Only foreign citizens who have made a significant contribution to Nepal or foreign women who have married a Nepali man can apply for naturalization. The law also states that a person born to a woman who is a citizen of Nepal and married to a foreign citizen may acquire naturalized citizenship of Nepal. There is no process of naturalization available to stateless persons or refugees.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is not recognized in Nepal. A Nepali citizen who acquires another citizenship will automatically lose their Nepali citizenship. Foreign citizens applying for naturalization must first renounce their foreign citizenship, which could leave them at risk of statelessness if their application is denied and they cannot reacquire the citizenship of their former country, as there are no provisions that prevent such a situation from arising.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

Nepal has ratified ICCPR, ICESCR, ICERD, CRC, and CEDAW with no relevant reservations. However, the country has yet to ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

In 2014, the CRC Committee expressed concerns regarding the low birth registration rate in the country, especially in rural areas and for women who are faced with barriers to registration. The Committee further highlighted that Nepal’s citizenship legislation includes gender discriminatory provisions and that there is no provision providing citizenship for those in Nepal who would otherwise be stateless. It was recommended that Nepal ensure universal birth registration by amending its Birth, Death and Other Personal Incidents Registration Act, establish an efficient and free birth registration system, remove barriers to birth registration and eliminate gender discrimination in its nationality legislation. These recommendations were echoed by the CRC Committee in 2016, adding that Nepal should seek assistance from UNICEF and civil society to fulfill their obligations.

The issue of Nepali women’s limited ability to confer citizenship to their children was also mentioned by the CESCR Committee in 2014. The Committee recommended awareness raising among local authorities to ensure that legislation is implemented effectively. The CRC Committee also expressed concerns in 2016 regarding the childhood statelessness of children born to a Nepali mother and foreign father who are unable to gain citizenship until they reach adulthood. It was recommended that Nepal ensure that the acquisition of Nepali citizenship by descent is accessible to children at birth.

In 2018, the CEDAW Committee also raised concern over denial of citizenship certificate and registration of children born to single mothers, which it added denies such women and their children access to bank accounts, a driver’s license, voting, managing their property, education, acquiring travel documents, applying for employment in the public sector and benefiting from social services. The Committee added that along with a high number of persons at risk of statelessness, Nepal has given no timeline for its ratification of the Stateless Conventions. Nepal was recommended to conduct citizenship certificate distribution campaigns and accede to the Statelessness Conventions. The Committee also recommended that Nepal “amend or repeal all discriminatory provisions in its [Constitution] that are contradictory to Article 9(2) of the Convention [which ensures gender equality in nationality law] to guarantee that Nepali women may confer their nationality to their children, as well as to their foreign spouses, under the same conditions as Nepali men, whether they are in the country or abroad”. In Nepal’s 2021 follow-up to the concluding observations, the country stated that “the [Constitution] ensures equality between men and women with respect to acquiring, retaining, and transferring of citizenship” and that “this also equally applies to their children”. Nepal also expressed that the “[Citizenship Amendment Bill] has also been submitted in the Federal Parliament”. In response to this, the Rapporteur stated that Nepal has yet to repeal the discriminatory provisions of the Constitution and found that the recommendation has not been implemented. While Nepal has enacted the Nepal Citizenship (First Amendment) Bill (2079) to amend gender discrimination since these concluding observations, as discussed above, remaining gender discriminatory provisions still deny Nepali women equal rights to confer citizenship.

In its 2018 concluding observations, the CERD Committee expressed concern over government officials who have reportedly discouraged Dalits from applying for citizenship. Further, it highlighted that Madheshi of the Terai region who acquired citizenship by birth prior to the promulgation of the Constitution in 2015 have not been able to confer citizenship by descent to their children, which violates article 11(3) of the Constitution. Article 11(3) of the Constitution states that “a child of a citizen having obtained the citizenship of Nepal by birth prior to the commencement of Nepal shall, upon attaining majority, acquire the citizenship of Nepal by descent if the child’s father and mother both are citizens of Nepal”. The Committee recommended that Nepal establish clear procedures for issuing citizenship certificates without discrimination, that applications are decided upon in a timely manner with written notification to the applicant of the reason for denial of citizenship, and that there be a complaint mechanism for those who receive a negative decision. With the enactment of the Citizenship Regulations in 2023, some of these concerns have been addressed.

In Nepal’s 2020 UPR submission, the country reiterated that its Constitution “ensures equality between men and women with respect to acquiring, retaining and transferring of citizenship” and that its Citizenship Act “fully recognizes and protects equal status of Nepali women while granting citizenship”. In the same session, four states (Canada, Finland, Germany and Panama) urged Nepal to amend its gender discriminatory provisions with regard to citizenship. In a joint submission for the same session, stakeholders recommended that Nepal:

“Take all necessary measures in line with obligations under the CRC and ICCPR to grant Nepali citizenship without delay to all children residing in the State party who would otherwise be stateless, particularly children born to Nepali mothers, and implement adequate safeguards to protect all children from statelessness”;
“Review and improve the current application process for citizenship certificates and simplify the process with a view to expediting it and making it more accessible to all applicants”;
“Review and enhance the transparency of the system for reviewing and granting applications for citizenship and reduce the discretionary threshold for such decisions, so that citizenship certificates are granted upon meeting the relevant criteria”
“Create a process to provide training to District Administration Offices on the provision of citizenship certificates, and establish a complaint or review mechanism in case of denial of citizenship application or discriminatory practices by civil servants”;
“Conduct a comprehensive study on the state of statelessness of minority and lower-caste groups, and ensure that caste-based discrimination does not result in denial of citizenship”;
“Find durable solutions for the enduring statelessness of intergenerational refugee populations in Nepal”; and
“Accede to and fully implement the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness”.

Status of Accession of International Human Rights Treaties in South Asia Country Stateless 1 Stateless 2 Refugee ICCPR ICESCR ICERD

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

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

1. Reported Stateless Persons

Nepal reported 452 stateless persons to UNHCR in 2022, a decrease of 13 people from the reported numbers in 2021. This population is entirely composed of stateless Rohingya refugees, with UNHCR noting that they have information regarding the in situ stateless population but lack any reliable data. In 2020, Nepal reported zero stateless persons, however, it was noted that there were 371 reported stateless Rohingya refugees in that year. UNHCR has noted that a “large number of individuals lack citizenship certificates in Nepal” and that “while these individuals are not all necessarily stateless, UNHCR has been working closely with the Government of Nepal and partners to address the situation”. In 2021, it was estimated that approximately 6.3 million people in Nepal lacked citizenship documentation, which consists of 25% of the population over the age of 16.

While there is a lack of accurate estimates on the number of persons affected by statelessness in the country, it is likely in the hundreds of thousands. In 2011, UNHCR estimated the population to be as high as 800,000 affected persons, a figure which was rejected by the Government of Nepal. The large number of people affected by statelessness in Nepal can be attributed to patriarchal structures combined with discriminatory attitudes of officials in providing documentation, “a discriminatory, caste-based system, and the failure to provide a durable solution to long-term refugees and protect their children’s right to nationality”.

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

Ethnic minority groups including Dalit and Madheshi communities in Nepal face issues of accessing citizenship and identity documents and are at risk of statelessness. For the Dalit community, discrimination, lack of awareness, and poverty have acted as barriers to accessing citizenship.

In 2011, UNHCR estimated the population to be as high as 800,000 affected persons, a figure which was rejected by the Government of Nepal.

3. Undetermined Nationalities

UNHCR has noted that “various studies estimate that a large number of individuals lack citizenship certificates in Nepal. While these individuals are not necessarily all stateless, UNHCR has been working closely with the Government of Nepal and partners to address this situation”. In 2016 the Forum for Women, Law and Development projected that by 2021 as many as 6.7 million people would be without citizenship.

4. Stateless Refugee

All of the 452 reported stateless persons in Nepal are Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Additionally, the US Department of State reported that 6,365 Bhutanese refugees remain in Nepal, many of whom are stateless.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Nepal	–	–	465	452

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

Causes of Statelessness

1. Discriminatory Nationality Laws

There has been consistent advocacy and scrutiny around Nepal’s gender discriminatory citizenship laws at a domestic level as well as a focus on international academics and organisations. Despite the 2023 amendment which removed some gender-discriminatory aspects of Nepal’s citizenship legislation, several groups still face discriminatory barriers in accessing citizenship. Previously, a child born to a single Nepali citizen mother would only gain citizenship by descent when the father was not identified only through a court order. The changes provided that children born to single mothers and citizens by birth may obtain Nepali citizenship, however, extra conditions remain for single mothers to confer citizenship to their children. For children born to a single mother whose husband cannot be traced, citizenship may only be conferred by the mother if she or the child signs a self-declaration to declare that the father is in fact not traceable. The law further dictates that if the details provided are found to be false, they may be punished by three years in prison and the citizenship of the child will be revoked.

The amendment also stipulated that a child born to a foreign man and Nepali woman can acquire naturalized citizenship even if not born within the territory. There are no such provisions allowing Nepali women to confer nationality to a foreign spouse. In instances where a child is born to a Nepali citizen mother and a foreign father, citizenship can only be acquired through naturalisation (where children born to citizen fathers gain citizenship by descent). Such naturalized citizenships depend on the discretion of the Ministry of Home Affairs and till date very few people have received such citizenships. The effectiveness of implementation of the new protective measures included in the amendment are yet to be seen. As many as 400-500,000 persons are estimated to have been rendered stateless due to discriminatory provisions in Nepal.

There are no such provisions allowing Nepali women to confer nationality to a foreign spouse.

2. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

The citizenship law of Nepal provides that foundling children are considered citizens by descent until their father or mother is identified. Nepali citizenship laws do not address access to citizenship for children of stateless parents. Children unable to access citizenship under the gender discriminatory provisions in Nepal’s citizenship law are not protected from statelessness.

3. Administrative Barriers

Administrative and policy barriers affect the ability of marginalized groups, including the LGBTQIA+ community, women, and Dalit and Madheshi communities, from accessing citizenship certificates. Children born to and/ or living with single mothers continue to face a number of administrative barriers in gaining birth registration and citizenship certificates.

Aside from the discriminatory provisions of citizenship legislation in Nepal, the implementation of such legislation has also been found to be discriminatory. The arbitrary levels of discretion applied by authorities, who consist mostly of men, in issuing documentation has often denied women and their children documentation due to discriminatory patriarchal beliefs. Further, the same discriminatory discretion is seen in distribution of birth certificates, causing a lack of birth certificates among such marginalized groups which presents another barrier in accessing citizenship. The cost of obtaining the required documents for application of citizenship is also a barrier to some. The lack of a citizenship certificate leads to exclusion from a wide range of political, social, civil, and economic rights as the document is required to participate in many facets of public life as well as to obtain other identity documents. For example, a citizenship certificate is the only way to confirm a person’s identity in order to register to vote, which means that those without it do not enjoy the right to vote. Further, children are unable to enroll in the education system without a citizenship certificate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, citizenship certificates were also required for accessing relief packages, leaving these groups more vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic.

Not having a citizenship certificate can even prevent birth registration of the affected persons children, perpetuating the cycle of lack of documentation. The birth registration rate in Nepal was reported at 77% in 2019.

Nepal

Overview

Law