Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Myanmar discriminatory categories in the citizenship law, addressing the gaps in the law that lead to statelessness and removing ethnic and religious identities from ID cards. 23 Lack of naturalisation provisions There are no provisions within the 1982 Citizenship Law to acquire nationality through marriage or through long-term residence after 1982. Over three generations, associate and “naturalised” categories of citizens should, in principle, be able to acquire “full citizenship” in Myanmar. However, this is rarely the case in practice. This is considered to be an excessively long period over which to acquire full citizenship rights. The 2017 report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State recommended expanding the naturalisation provisions in Myanmar’s citizenship law. 24 CIVIL REGISTRATION AND DOCUMENTATION PRACTICES Lack of Access and Barriers There are multiple challenges to civil registration and documentation in Myanmar. In the Rohingya areas of North Rakhine State since 1995, a mixture of administrative barriers, local orders and “hidden policies” have delayed and prevented the registration of marriages and births. Permission to marry is required only for Rohingya populations. Delays and obstacles to obtaining marriage permission, prevent parents from registering new-borns on the household list. Children born out of wedlock cannot be registered. Local orders were in place in North Rakhine State from at least 2005 until 2014, which restricted Rohingya families to two children only. 25 This has led to a large number of Rohingya children being unregistered or “blacklisted”. 26 If one member of a household is not present during a household check by State authorities in North Rakhine State, they may be struck off the household list, effectively being de-registered. This can lead to arrest at a later time and has caused adult males to flee the country. 27 Since 2015, the largely unsuccessful implementation of National Verification in Rakhine State has led to further restrictions to registration and documentation. 28 Barriers to marriage and birth registration are also prevalent across the country. 29 Lack of access to birth registration particularly affects children born in remote rural areas; children born in conflict areas and children born of former refugees and migrant workers, since birth certificates issued in Thailand and other states are not recognised in Myanmar. 30 Applications for identity cards and citizenship documentation in Myanmar impose a very high evidentiary burden on the part of the applicant, often requiring the documents of their grandparents. Thus, the lack of birth registration Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Remarks: Myanmar, 59th session, 2012, CRC/C/MMR/CO/3-4 (CRC 2012) https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/MMR/CO/3-4&Lang=En 24 Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Towards as Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine: Final Report, 2017 http://www.rakhinecommission.org/the-final-report/ 25 Fortify Rights, Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State Policies Against Rohingya Muslims, 2014 (FR 2014) https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Policies_of_Persecution_Feb_25_Fortify_Rights.pdf 26 The Arakan Project, Issues to be raised concerning the situation of stateless Rohingya children in Myanmar (Burma), Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2012 http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs12/ArakanProject-Submission_to_CRC-Myanmar-2012-01red.pdf 27 FR 2014 pp37-39 28 IIFFM 2018 483-486 29 CRC 2012 30 Norwegian Refugee Council, The Seagull, Institute of Statelessness and Inclusion, Snap, A Gender Analysis of the Right to Nationality in Myanmar, 2018 https://www.nrc.no/resources/reports/a-gender-analysis-of-the-right-to-a-nationality-in-myanmar/ Institute of Statelessness and Norwegian Refugee Council, Navigating without a map: access to civil documents and citizenship in south east Myanmar, forthcoming 2019 (draft report available on file with Institute of Statelessness and Inclusion) 23 8