Every Child’s Right to a Nationality 27. The Federal Constitution contains a number of important safeguards against statelessness. In particular, a child born in Malaysia who would otherwise be stateless is a Malaysian citizen by operation of the law, if the child is unable to acquire another nationality within 12 months of their birth through registration.20 Additionally, article 15A of the Federal Constitution provides that the “Federal Government may, in such special circumstances as it thinks fit, cause any person under the age of twenty-one years to be registered as a citizen”. However, these safeguards are rarely applied in practice. 28. Thus, despite there being a strong legal framework for the conferral Malaysian nationality to children who would otherwise be stateless, there are significant challenges with implementation. 29. Generally, at a practical level, the correct application forms are not always provided to stateless persons by the Malaysian Government’s National Registration Department; applications for citizenship are usually not decided on a timely basis, with some stateless persons waiting for two or more years for a decision. Additionally, contrary to principles of natural justice, reasons for negative decisions are not provided to applicants, resulting in stateless persons being uninformed as to the reasons why their applications are denied and hindering their ability to review such decisions. Judicial review of negative decisions is costly and time consuming. 30. With respect stateless adopted children, there is scope in Malaysia’s nationality law for adopted stateless children to acquire the nationality of one of their adoptive parents. However, in practice, adoptive parents face significant barriers in conferring citizenship on their stateless children: I. Despite providing a clear legal basis for the conferral of nationality to adopted stateless children via Article 14(b) of the Federal Constitution, this provision is usually not applied to adopted stateless children. Therefore, adoptive parents are required to submit an application for the discretionary conferral of citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution. However, applications usually take about 2 to 3 years to be processed and citizenship is also usually not conferred to adopted stateless children pursuant to Article 15A. Adoptive parents have reported lodging numerous subsequent applications, which are often also rejected. Reasons for the refusal are often not provided to the applicants. Some adopted parents have resorted to applying for Court Declarations, which is not only costly, but also time-consuming and contrary to the best interests of the child II. There are two separate statutory regimes which govern adoption by Muslim parents (the De Facto Adoption Act 253) and non-Muslim parents (the Court Adoption Act 257). Conferral provisions for Muslim adoptive parents and parents who are not “legally married” are more restrictive as these do not allow the adopted child to inherent their adoptive parents names or for the adoptive parents to name the child. Both statutory regimes undermine the right of adoptive parents to confer their nationality to their adopted children. 31. Additionally, Malaysia does not have a free-at-all-stages birth registration system and registration is not automatic at birth. Instead, an applicant must register a birth with the Malaysian Government’s National Registration Department to receive a birth certificate. Without birth registration and a birth certificate it can be difficult for children to prove who they and their parents are. Lack of birth registration can therefore also provide a barrier for parents in conferring citizenship on their children. 32. With respect to foundlings, Article 19B of the Federal Constitution provides that: 20 Article 14 (1) (b), Part II Second Schedule section 1(e) and section 2(3) – Federal Constitution. 7