23.
Amidst of the lockdown imposed by the Government of Nepal due to the given situation of COVID
19, the Government announced the relief package targeting to the workers of unorganized sector and
helpless people. The Standard33 prepared to distribute the relief package made citizenship certificate
or any identity document a mandatory document to receive the relief due to which huge number
of people without citizenship certificate were excluded from the benefit of the Government’s relief
package.34 The Supreme Court of Nepal issued an interim order to the Government telling to provide
relief materials immediately to the economically marginalized and helpless people without requiring
them to provide citizenship certificate keeping in the mind the people’s right to food and on grounds
of humanity. However, there are still cases reported where the people without citizenship certificate
are denied of the relief package.
PREJUDGES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CITIZENSHIP LAWS
24.
In addition to Nepal’s nationality laws being discriminatory, they are also implemented in a
discriminatory manner, with local authorities frequently denying women and their children access
to documentation due to discriminatory and patriarchal beliefs. As a result, despite of the positive
jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Nepal, unfair and impractical administrative burdens and
barriers continue to be imposed against women attempting to confer their citizenship to their children.
25.
Deep rooted patriarchal mind set and the attitude of public servants and first instance decision makers
in Nepal as well as prevalent socio-cultural bias towards women is also responsible for the continuing
discrimination of women in the area of citizenship. There is the understanding among the people
including public servants and people at the authorities that women once married, go away to the
husband’s house and take up the family name and nationality of their husband still prevails in Nepal
which not only fails to recognize an independent identity of women and the equal rights guaranteed
to women but also creates an extreme barriers to women in getting citizenship. This has widened the
scope of the vulnerability of statelessness in the Nepali women who marry foreign citizens before
having obtained their own citizenship certificate, are barred from subsequently doing so.
CASE
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Patriarchal Effect on Right to Nationality of Nepal Women
Sukumaya Tamang (42) of Makanwanpur trafficked to a circus in Kanpur, India when she was just 12
years old. While she was there she got married to an Indian citizen and has a daughter out of the marriage.
After the death of her husband she came to her home at Makawanpur, Nepal. When she felt a need of
citizenship she went to the ward office for recommendation to apply for citizenship she was denied saying
that since she is married, she must go to her husband’s house and acquire citizenship from his husband’s
family. She even went to the Hetauda Municipality and CDO Office of Makwanpur district but received
the same answer. She filed a case to the Supreme Court in 2012. It has been more than 8 years but her case
yet to be decided.
Source: Kumar Joshi v. the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Home Affairs et al, Writ No. 069-WS-0037, Supreme
Court of Nepal, 2012
26.
While there is no legal barrier to women obtaining citizenship certificates through their parents after
marriage with Nepali men, in practice, married women are required to submit citizenship documents
of their spouse and his family in order to obtain citizenship placing women who experience violence
in their married life in a vulnerable position.
33. The Standards relating to the Relief Distribution to the Workers of an Unorganized Sector and Helpless People, 2020
34. Ibid, Number 8 (a), (b) and (c) of the Annex 1
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