Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus Sanguinis Provisions

The citizenship law of Nauru operates through jus sanguinis provisions with a child born either within or outside of the country to at least one Nauruan citizen will be granted citizenship, as provided by the Citizenship Act of 2017. The Act also includes a provision providing automatic citizenship to “a person born in the Republic on or after 31 January 1968” if they would otherwise be stateless. In 2017, Nauru amended their citizenship laws to remove gender discriminatory provisions that had limited the ability of women to pass on their citizenship to a spouse. There is no definition of statelessness or explicit mention of statelessness in Nauru’s national citizenship legislation.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

An application for citizenship is available to anyone who is 20 years of age and pays the application fee. Decisions on naturalization applications are final and there explicitly no methods of appeals or reviews by the Court. Citizenship by application may be given to a person born in the Republic to parents who are not citizens and the person has resided in the country continuously for 20 years. There is no simplified or expedited procedure for refugees and stateless persons.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is recognized in Nauru.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

Nauru has acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the CRC, and CEDAW with no reservations. In its 2016 concluding observations, the CRC Committee expressed concerns regarding the inhumane treatment of refugee and asylum-seeking children, including those who are unaccompanied, sent from Australia for offshore processing. While there are some legislative safeguards against statelessness for children in Nauru, UNHCR in 2015 expressed concerns in the recent UPR submission that there are no safeguards for foundling children. Nauru’s national citizenship legislation does not include a provision which grants citizenship to foundlings. UNHCR recommended that Nauru amend legislation to ensure that foundling children in the territory are presumed to be a national of Nauru. In 2021, in the 3rd cycle of UPR, the State was asked to introduce provisions in the Constitution to end “statelessness of abandoned minors and the loss or stripping of nationality”.

Ratification of International laws relating to statelessness by the countries the Pacific

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

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

Data on the reported stateless population in Nauru to UNHCR’s global trends report only began at the beginning of 2021, and it has demonstrated significant fluctuations over the past few years. The number of stateless individuals was reported as 140 at the beginning of 2021 and slightly dropped to 130 by the end of the year. The most striking decrease occurred over the year of 2022, as by the end of 2022, the reported number had plunged to 6 people. Based on the available research, the statelessness of the recorded population on Nauru was caused prior to their arrival in the country.

2. Stateless Refugee

The entire reported stateless population in Nauru comprises Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Since 2012, the governments of Australia and Nauru have had a contract allowing for Australia to utilise Nauru as a ‘regional processing centre’ for refugees that arrived in Australia via boat. In July of 2013, Australia began forcibly transferring refugees and asylum seekers into Nauru as well as Papua New Guinea. This process has been condemned by UN bodies, NGOs and refugee advocates. As part of this contract and a similar contract with the government of Papua New Guinea, more than 4,000 refugees were sent to Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea by the Australian government. While Manus Island Detention Centre was closed in 2016, the Australian government has signed a deal with the government of Nauru to keep the detention centre on Nauru open indefinitely for future boat arrivals. The last refugee on Nauru as a part of this policy was evacuated in June of 2023. At least 14 people died as a result of this offshore processing system, half of which were from suicide. The detention facilities have been described as ‘prison-like’. Those who were transferred to Nauru spent at least one year in crowded vinyl tents which reached indoor temperatures of 45-50 degrees Celsius (113-122 degrees Fahrenheit) and subjected the detainees to torrential rains and flooding. Further, personal items including food and sewing needles were routinely confiscated from detainees and sanitation facilities were unsanitary and access to them was restricted.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Nauru	–	–	130	6

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

Causes of Statelessness

1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

Nauru’s legislation provides automatic citizenship to “a person born in the Republic on or after 31 January 1968” if they would otherwise be stateless. Therefore, stateless persons born in Nauru have access to Nauru citizenship. Due to the fact that stateless persons in Nauru became stateless before arriving in Nauru, this legislation does not effectively prevent statelessness in the country.

2. Administrative Barriers

As of 2013, Nauru reported a 96% birth registration rate.1643 Nauru has consistently reported birth registration rates over 90%, which can be attributed to the fact that births occur predominantly in the main hospital on the main island, which collaborates closely with the Civil Registry Office, facilitated by a well-established process involving the issuance of letters to parents and financial incentives. The small rate of births that remain unregistered require further investigation.

Nauru

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Law