REGIONAL OVERVIEW minority groups labeled as ‘alien’, including Bengali-speaking and ethnic Bihari communities, have also been denied citizenship.189 Restrictions on the basis of gender Gender discrimination in nationality laws has also played a fundamental role in creating statelessness in the region. In South Asia, Nepal’s gender discriminatory provisions restrict the ability of women to confer nationality onto their children and may have led to the statelessness of as many as 400–500,000 persons.190 While the laws of the Maldives also contains some potentially gender discriminatory provisions,191 no statistics are available on the impact of these provisions on populations in the Maldives.192 In Southeast Asia, children born outside of Malaysia to Malaysian citizen mothers married to foreign fathers, as well as children born in Malaysia to Malaysian fathers and foreign mothers in an unregistered/unrecognised marriage may have been rendered stateless through gender discriminatory provisions.193 While there has been extensive advocacy in recent years for the amendment of these provisions,194 there are no available figures on the number of children affected. Additionally, the citizenship law of Singapore contains gender discriminatory provisions which limit the ability of mothers to confer citizenship onto children born in the State “…whose fathers are diplomats or members of foreign forces during times of war”.195 Some gender discrimination remains in the citizenship legislation of the Philippines, as naturalized alien women who are married to Philippine citizen men may ipso facto become a Philippine citizen through marriage; however, Philippine citizen women cannot confer nationality to a foreign spouse on the same basis as men.196 Women are also limited in their ability to confer nationality onto foreign husbands in Brunei while Brunei men are able to 32 REGIONAL OVERVIEW confer nationality to a foreign spouse.197 While Thailand’s 2008 amendments to its citizenship law allowed for foreign spouses to apply for Thai citizenship without the requirement of permanent residence198, the Act still does not allow for full gender equality in the ability to confer citizenship to foreign spouses.199 None of the citizenship laws of Central or East Asian States have gender, ethnic or religiously discriminatory provisions. In the Pacific, Kiribati and Solomon Islands are the only States that contain gender discriminatory provisions. Children born outside of the territory to mothers with Kiribati citizenship cannot access citizenship automatically.200 Citizenship by descent is limited to children whose fathers are Kiribati citizens.201 However, unlike other Pacific Island States, Kiribati has a small overseas population, with approximately 5,000 I-Kiribati’s living in New Zealand and Australia.202 There are no reliable statistics on the number of persons this provision has affected. In Solomon Islands foreign women are required to gain the consent of their husband in order to apply for citizenship and women who have jointly adopted a child cannot apply for citizenship for their child (the father must do so).203 None of the citizenship laws of Central or East Asian States have gender, ethnic or religiously discriminatory provisions. Lack of legal safeguards against childhood statelessness Legal safeguards against childhood statelessness including the protection of foundlings and children born to stateless parents are not universal across the Asia-Pacific region. The citizenship laws of less than half of the States in the region (19 States: Australia, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC (DETAILED VERSION) Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu and Vietnam) explicitly provide that foundling children will be considered citizens.204 The citizenship laws of 12 States (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kiribati, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Uzbekistan) provide some/limited protection for foundling children under their law.205 Under the laws of 14 States (Bhutan, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Federated States of Micronesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu) there is no explicit protection for foundling children to gain citizenship. Similarly, less than half of the States (14 States: Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, and Uzbekistan) provide citizenship to children born on their territories who would otherwise be stateless.206 There is also limited protection provided under the laws of 17 States (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Samoa and Vietnam) to stateless persons born on the territory.207 However, there is no protection under the laws of the remaining 14 States (Bhutan, Brunei, India, the Maldives, Federated States of Micronesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Palau, the Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tonga and Vanuatu). Myanmar is the only State in the region that explicitly provides differentiated categories of citizenship (outside of naturalized/non-naturalized citizenship distinctions).208 Differential treatment between persons classified as citizens by descent or citizens by birth, including limitations of citizens by descent to pass on citizenship to children exist in four States (Nepal, New Zealand, Samoa, and Singapore) in the region.209 Citizenship stripping Citizenship stripping by States has wide ranging impacts across the Asia-Pacific region. In East Asia, following the end of the Second World War, and Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean peninsula approximately 52,000 ethnic Koreans were stripped of Japanese citizenship.210 In 2021, more than 26,000 persons and their descendants have not had their citizenship status resolved.211 In both Taiwan and South Korea, foreign spouses whose marriage is determined to be a ‘sham’ or ‘fraudulent’ have been stripped of their citizenship and rendered stateless (as both States have required the renunciation of one’s former nationality prior to gaining the nationality of their spouse).212 This has had implications for Southeast Asian States as the majority of marriage migrants in East Asia originate from Vietnam, and have returned to Vietnam stateless following relationship breakdowns.213 While not a common issue in most States of Central Asia, citizens of Uzbekistan may have their citizenship stripped for failing to register with the permanent consulate register within seven years without valid reasons while living abroad.214 The right to appeal is guaranteed in Uzbekistan.215 In Southeast Asia (with implications in the Pacific), prior to amendment in 2006, under the citizenship laws of Indonesia persons residing outside of the territory for more than 5 years without registration were stripped of their Indonesian citizenship.216 This law is estimated to have affected an estimated 10–15,000 West REPORT 2024 33