Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas Malaysia, Voice of the Children, Yayasan Chow Kit, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, Statelessness Network Asia Pacific and Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 31st Session of the Universal Periodic Review Malaysia Introduction 1. Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia,1 Voice of the Children (VoC),2 Yayasan Chow Kit (YCK),3 the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (GCENR),4 the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific (SNAP)5 and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (the Institute)6 make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness and gender discrimination in the nationality law and policies of Malaysia.7 2. This submission focuses on: I. Malaysia’s gender discriminatory laws and policies that prevent both men and women from conferring nationality on their children and spouses; 1 DHRRA Malaysia (www.dhrramalaysia.org.my) is an independent non-profit organization established to promote strong and selfreliant communities through empowerment initiatives. Since 2003, DHRRA Malaysia has been a local catalyst in working to address statelessness in Malaysia. DHRRA Malaysia has collaborated with partners to compile accurate baseline figures on statelessness in west Malaysia through its community-based paralegal project and conducted several community-based trainings in Sabah, east Malaysia on statelessness. DHRRA Malaysia has also initiated several strategic litigation cases with a team of pro-bono lawyers on the application of Malaysia’s nationality law with respect to statelessness. 2 VoC’s (voc.org.my) was incorporated in 2008 as a child advocacy group to address a gap in children’s services. VoC’s mission is to advocate for law and policy reform to ensure that the rights of every child in Malaysia are protected and no longer at risk of violation. VoC believes that the welfare and protection of every child in Malaysia can only be realized through the promotion of children’s rights and the continued implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child in Malaysia. 3 Yayasan Chow Kit (www.yck.org.my/) (YCK) is a non-profit organization that caters to the needs of children in and around Chow Kit. YCK runs two drop-in centres in Chow Kit and one safe home for children who are in need of temporary guardianship. YCK was developed out of Nur Salam and was incorporated on 19 January 2011. 4 The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (www.equalnationalityrights.org) mobilises international action for the removal of gender discriminatory provisions from all nationality laws through its coalition of national and international organisations and activists. 5 SNAP (https://www.statelessnessnetworkasiapacific.org/) is a civil society network with the goal of promoting collaboration and information sharing on addressing statelessness in Asia and the Pacific. SNAP is driven by a diverse membership and through direct engagement and contribution from its members and stakeholders, particularly formerly stateless persons, stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness. 6 The Institute (www.institutesi.org) is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion through a combination of research, education, partnerships and advocacy. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. The Institute has made over 30 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 30th UPR Sessions. For more information on the Institute’s UPR advocacy, see http://www.statelessnessandhumanrights.org/upr-universal-periodic-review/resources-database. 7 The co-submitting organisations are grateful to the input and contributions Rodziana Mohammed Razali, Helen Brunt and a faculty member at the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa. 2