PETALING JAYA: The government must swiftly make constitutional amendments and uphold its commitment to zero tolerance for gender discrimination.
This is particularly needed after criticism by the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls (WGDAWG), which issued a statement yesterday on the Court of Appeal decision that denied women the same rights as men to automatically accord citizenship to children.
All Women’s Action Society (Awam) information and communications officer Jernell Tan Chia Ee, who said this, added that the inability of women to automatically accord nationality to their children is an expression of a state’s position that the father plays a more significant role in his child’s legal identity.
She said this perpetuates the patriarchal idea of women’s inferiority and discounts women’s equal responsibility and role as a parent.
UN experts said affected women were less likely to leave abusive relationships and that their children risk statelessness. The decision contravenes Malaysia’s obligations under international law and the need to interpret all constitutional provisions concerning citizenship, and its transference, without discrimination based on sex.
Tan said Awam extended its appreciation to the UN special rapporteurs, especially WGDAWG chair-rapporteur Melissa Upreti, for keeping close tabs on developments related to the long-standing gender-based discrimination, and continuously calling for equal rights concerning nationality and citizenship.
“On Aug 25, as part of the gender-responsive budget announcement, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob committed to improving and fine-tuning existing policies, legislations and programmes to be more gender sensitive.
“In light of the far-reaching implications of unequal citizenship rights on Malaysian women and their children, it is only right that the government prioritises amending the Federal Constitution as soon as possible,” she said.
Family Frontiers executive council member Chee Yoke Ling said the UN was correct to say that Malaysia has not fulfilled its obligations under two UN human rights treaties that were merged in 1995.
These are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which ensured that Malaysian women have equal rights as men to accord citizenship on their children born overseas to non-Malaysian spouses, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child to ensure that every child has rights to the nationality of both parents.
“In September 2001, Parliament unanimously supported the amendment of Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution to include the word ‘gender’ so that there would be no discrimination against Malaysians based on religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender in any law.
“Unfortunately, every successive government has failed to remove the discrimination in Article 14(1)(b) that recognises the right of fathers to automatically (accord) Malaysian citizenship to their children wherever they are born, regardless of the mother’s citizenship.
“The archaic notion that citizenship by operation of law, which is the automatic conferment of citizenship from parent to child is only viable through the father, is found in only 25 countries in the world today.
“Celebrating 65 years of Merdeka is overshadowed by 65 years of continuing discrimination against Malaysian mothers,” Chee added.
She said this human rights issue has the support of the majority of Malaysians across the country and captured international attention.
“I am very encouraged that there is a strong dissenting judgment in the Court of Appeal that supported the landmark High Court decision to end this unacceptable discrimination in our citizenship law.
“So, the struggle for equal rights for Malaysian women to accord citizenship to our children will continue. An application for leave to appeal against the majority decision of the Court of Appeal has been filed in the Federal Court,” she said.
