6.3 Promoting the non-discriminatory enjoyment of rights The protection of stateless persons can be directly improved by simply promoting non-discrimination in the enjoyment of rights. For example, if access to schooling is guaranteed for all children, regardless of nationality or status, the protection of stateless children is also assured. However, ensuring that stateless persons enjoy equal access to rights in practice may call for special measures to address any obstacles that they face due to the particularities of their situation. Only then can the protection of stateless persons be ensured and will states be able to satisfy their human rights obligations. For instance, in order to ensure that stateless persons in the Philippines are equally able to enjoy family rights, domestic rules relating to the contracting of marriage by non-citizens have been tailored to take into account their specific situation. Foreigners are generally required to submit a certificate issued by their respective diplomatic or consular office that attests to their legal capacity to contract marriage. Stateless persons, however, may submit an affidavit in lieu of this document, since there is no diplomatic or consular office necessarily obliged to issue documentation for them.177 Protecting the rights of stateless persons in Malaysia After a visit to the country, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education reported that “one of the most serious education-related problems in Malaysia [is] the lack of access to education, at all levels, for children lacking Malaysian citizenship status, including refugee children, asylumseekers, children of migrant workers and stateless children”.178 The Ministry of Education has since renewed its pledge to offer an education to all children, irrespective of their circumstances or status, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Ministry developed strategic partnerships with a number of stakeholders, including UNICEF, the Federal Special Task Force and the armed forces, in order to implement a dedicated education policy for stateless children. Alternative education programmes have been established along the same lines as the formal system with a focus on reading, writing and arithmetic skills, as well as civic education. The Education Minister commented that the cost of educating stateless children is minimal, while a flexible and inclusive education policy will help to generate valuable human capital for the state.179 In a separate policy focusing on Malaysia’s Indian community, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak established a Special Implementation Task Force (SITF). The Indian community in Malaysia has been identified as one of the populations at heightened risk of statelessness, although the actual incidence of statelessness within this group is not known.180 The SITF will monitor the participation of the Indian community in government projects and promote access to public-sector services such as poverty eradication programmes, affordable housing and education. It is designed to be a “mobile one-stop centre”,181 with direct involvement of different government departments such as the National Registration Department and Social Welfare Department. In its first outreach effort, the SITF registered around 500 problems, logged during a one-day session in Selangor, with an even greater turnout during the second round of outreach. Welfare cases were the most numerous complaints but this was followed by problems of access to identity documentation and birth 177 Article 21 of the Family Code of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 209, 1987. In this report, the Special Rapporteur identified a policy introduced in 1997 as the source of many problems. From that year, the words Daftar Asing (foreigner) were written on the birth certificate of children of non-Malaysian parentage and this formed a barrier for their access to public education. Private schooling became the only option but this was unaffordable to most of the families concerned. UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Vernor Munoz Villalobos: addendum: mission to Malaysia, A/HRC/11/8/Add.2, 20 March 2009. See also Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: Malaysia, CRC/C/MYS/CO/1, 25 June 2007; C. Olson, Malaysia: undocumented children in Sabah vulnerable to statelessness, Refugees International, 13 June 2007; US Department of State, 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Malaysia, 11 March 2010. 179 Ensuring education for all, New Straits Times [Malaysia], 20 July 2010; Government to ensure stateless children get education: DPM, Bernama [Malaysia], 20 July 2010; Muhyiddin: Kids without papers will get access to education, The Star Online [Malaysia], 21 July 2010. 180 See, for instance, L. Koya, “Statelessness in Malaysia” in S. Nagarajan (ed.) SUHAKAM after 5 years: State of human rights in Malaysia, 2006; task force to sort out stateless Malaysians, New Straits Times [Malaysia], 22 October 2008. 181 Special task force for Indians swings into action, The Malaysian Insider [Malaysia], 12 August 2010. 178 27