Stop punishing kids born out of wedlock for parents' mistake - rights group

 

A rights group advocating for reforms in citizenship issues has called on the Malaysian government to stop “punishing” children born out of wedlock for their parents’ failure to register their marriage.

In particular, Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia director for social protection, Maalini Ramalo, said Malaysia now remains the only one out of two countries globally that discriminated against men in terms of their ability to pass their nationality to their children born out of wedlock. 

She said this followed a statement dated May 4 from the Commonwealth of Bahamas' attorney-general's office that upheld a landmark supreme court judgement - all children born out of wedlock to a Bahamian father and foreign mother are citizens of the Bahamas at birth and do not have to wait until they are 18 years old to apply for citizenship.

“This means that all other Islamic or Muslim-majority countries have also effectively addressed these discriminatory practices.

“I’m not saying that a legal marriage should not be made a requirement but the law should be fixed so that the children are not punished for their parents’ actions,” she told Malaysiakini.

Maalini Ramalo

Maalini said the government should not make a distinction between children born in wedlock and those out of wedlock in determining their access to citizenship.

“The fuss surrounding these children and their status is unwarranted.

“Being born out of wedlock in Malaysia means a Malaysian father cannot pass on citizenship to their children,” she said, noting an added discrimination against unwed fathers under Malaysia’s citizenship laws.

“This has led to a large number of children being at risk of statelessness and being stateless despite being born in Malaysia while having no other country to call their home,” Maalini said.

She said the situation was linked to Section 17 of Part III of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution, which governs the acquisition of citizenship.

The provision stipulates that the power to confer citizenship to a child born out of wedlock falls on the mother.

This then leads to children born to a foreign mother not being able to access citizenship through their Malaysian father, she added.

Last month, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail revealed that only 33 citizenships were granted to children born out of wedlock from a total of 5,094 applications received between 2019 and 2022.

Overall, Saifuddin at the time said there were a total of 133,436 pending citizenship applications across various categories, including adults and children, and the government has set a target of approving at least 10,000 applications by year-end. - Mkini