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.
