In a landmark decision in September 2021, the Malaysian High Court upheld Article 8 of the
Malaysian Federal Constitution, which does not permit gender discrimination in any law, and
recognized an equal right for men and women to transmit nationality to their children born
overseas. This decision was overturned at the Court of Appeal in August 2022, and is pending
final decision by the Federal Court of Malaysia. 12 In February 2023, the government announced
its decision to amend the Constitution to grant Malaysian women the right to confer their
nationality to their overseas-born children on an equal basis with men. However, along with this
positive amendment, the proposal to reform the citizenship provisions of the Constitution also
contains amendments that seek to remove safeguards for children born on the territory who
would otherwise be stateless, and for foundlings.
At the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness, Liberia and Eswatini pledged to resolve
issues of gender discrimination in its nationality law before the end of the #IBelong Campaign
in 2024.13
To fulfil this pledge, in 2022, the President of Liberia signed an act to amend the Aliens and
Nationality Law, removing gender-discriminatory provisions preventing women to confer
nationality to their children on an equal basis as men.
In Eswatini, the current litigation, Machakata v. Minister Home Affairs & others (Notices of
Application and Founding Affidavit), to which the Eswatini Ministry of Home Affairs is not
opposing, aims to resolve the issue through a declaratory order of the High Court that the
offending legislative provisions be interpreted so as to not result in gender discrimination.
12
See: Suriani Kembpe & 6 others -v- Government of Malaysia & Ors [2021] 8 CLJ 666; Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed v
Ketua Pengarah Pendaftaran & Ors and Anor Appeal [2022] 8 CLJ 697
13
An additional four States made pledges concerning gender discrimination that are outside the scope of this survey.
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