Re-imagining Myanmar citizenship in times of transition José-María Arraiza Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/01 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion June 2017 Author biography Dr. José-María Arraiza (Madrid, 1973) has researched and worked on minority issues (including language, citizenship, civil documents and land issues) in conflict, post-conflict scenarios and complex emergencies for agencies such as the UN (East Timor, Kosovo) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities in The Hague and the OSCE Mission in Kosovo) and the Norwegian Refugee Council. He has a PhD in comparative public law on the relation between autonomy design and minority rights (Åbo Akademi, Finland), an L.L.M. in Peace Support Operations, and the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation. He is a member of the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific (SNAP). Author email Carraiza@hotmail.com Key words Myanmar – citizenship – statelessness – minorities – civil documents Abstract The ongoing transition towards more democratic governance and peace of Myanmar requires a revision of its citizenship legislation. Such a revision implies a re-imagining and re-conceptualisation of nationhood in Myanmar coherent with democratic principles with a view to allow longstanding Myanmar inhabitants to become full citizens in line with the “stakeholder principle”. Currently, the citizenship legal framework is based on the 1982 Citizenship Law, which was enacted during General Ne Win´s military regime. The law, a highly ethnified act, removed naturalisation and jus soli provisions from its predecessor, the 1948 Union Citizenship Law, with the aim to exclude from full citizenship persons who did not descend from a defined list of national groups considered to be indigenous. As a result of its highly burdensome procedures, millions of persons in Myanmar lack access to civil documents and a million of them are stateless, not being recognised as nationals by any state. A revision of the 1982 Citizenship Law would help address the historical anomaly of the military era legislation in consonance with the democratic transition. It could include jus soli provisions, regular naturalisation procedures and safeguards for children to be granted Myanmar citizenship if otherwise they would become stateless.