Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2015/02 together, due to the fact that children can request their citizenship only from the age of majority according to Article 11.3 of the new Constitution11. 3. Statelessness conditions the private and public sphere of affected persons The powerless situation of thousands of Nepali women, who cannot confer their nationality on their children, has significant impacts on their offspring’s entire lives. Stateless people are excluded from a wide range of political, social, civil, and economic rights and duties12. This discriminatory inequality is perceptible in the private sphere, for example within families, as well as in the public sphere, including the community and state level. Stateless persons are not provided with identity cards, which are a pre-condition to receive public services, including education and health care. Practically, they cannot do things like buy SIM cards, open bank accounts or travel by airplane. Stateless persons are furthermore excluded from formal employment, the registration of events like marriage, business or death, participation in national elections, and from governmental benefits and allowances (for example for widows, persons with disabilities, victims and survivors of the armed conflict or the earthquake of April and May 2015)13. The negative effects in the public sphere heavily impact on the private sphere and vice versa because both spheres are highly interlinked and their borders are blurred. 4. A vicious circle – exemplified in the issue of trafficking Statelessness can be a root cause for human rights violations and a product of human rights abuses at the same time. Thus, discrimination against women and the possible statelessness of their children can be part of a vicious circle from which it is hard to escape. As mentioned above, statelessness has a directly negative impact on an individual’s ability to generate a stable income in the formal sector and to obtain state services, including health care and education. Consequently, stateless persons often suffer from a high level of poverty14 and the law cannot always protect them15. Therefore, stateless girls and women are at great risk of becoming victims of trafficking to other countries, including being trafficked to India where, according to UNICEF, approximately 200,000 Nepali girls and women work in brothels16. In addition, it has been observed that after the devastating earthquakes in 2015, the already very high numbers of trafficking incidences further increased because poor and/or orphaned girls and young women succumbed to traffickers’ false promises to financially supporting them and their relatives. Once abroad, trafficking victims might give birth to children who are also highly prone to become stateless. According to the new Constitution’s Article 11.5 a Nepali woman who lives permanently in Nepal may request the offspring’s citizenship by descent only if the father of the child is unidentified17. If it turns 11 Amnesty International (2015). Open letter to the new Prime Minister and Government of Nepal: Amend regressive aspects of the constitution. Retrieved 09.11.2015 from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa31/2802/2015/en/ 12 Duties comprise paying certain taxes or obeying the national law and order. 13 White, P. (2009). Reducing de facto statelessness in Nepal. Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, pp. 28 - 29. 14 Retrieved 27.10.2015 from http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2015-09-30/cycle-of-exclusion.html. 15 Lynch, M. (2008). Futures denied – Statelessness amongst infants, children and youth, in: Refugees International: Washington, DC. Retrieved 09.11.2015 from http://www.rcusa.org/uploads/pdfs/RI%20Futures%20Denied,%2010-08.pdf 16 5000 - 7000 girls and women are trafficked to India each year. Retrieved 02.07.2015 from http://asiasociety.org/traffickingchildren-prostitution-and-unicef-response 17 In such a case women and their offspring may expect further discrimination and stigmatization. Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and Nepal Civil Society Network of Citizenship Rights (2015). Nepal, Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 23rd Session of the Universal Periodic Review - Summary, Update 3