Committee on the Rights of the Child Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson, 52 rue des Pâquis CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland 30 April 2015 Re: Nepal – 69th Pre-sessional Working Group of the Committee Distinguished Committee Members, The Forum for Women, Law and Development,1 the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion,2 and the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights3 respectfully submit this letter in advance of the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s (the Committee’s) discussion on Nepal at its 69th Pre-sessional Working Group. This letter draws the Committee’s attention to the impact that Nepal’s gender discriminatory nationality law has on child rights, particularly in relation to Articles 2, 3, 7, 8, 24, and 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The letter concludes by proposing questions for the Committee to include in its List of Issues to be raised with the government of Nepal.4 Gender Discrimination in Nepal’s nationality law Nepal is one of 27 countries around the world that continues to discriminate against women in their ability to confer their nationality on their children on an equal basis with men. Women are also denied the right to acquire, change and retain citizenship fully and independently, and to pass their nationality to foreign spouses, In addition to Nepal’s law being discriminatory, it is also implemented in a discriminatory manner. Furthermore, the birth registration rate in the country is extremely low, and in practice, citizenship is only confirmed after the age of 16. Collectively, all of these factors can also result in serious violations of children’s rights. Most significantly, many children born to Nepali mothers are rendered stateless. Their statelessness or lack of legal status impedes their access to fundamental socio-economic rights including education and healthcare, and they also face restrictions in terms of freedom of movement. The disadvantages of statelessness follow children into adulthood, impeding their access to employment and various other human rights. Stateless adults are more likely to have stateless children, and thus, with every generation, the extent of the problem and its impact on children grows further. Violation of Articles 7 & 8 CRC Article 7 of the CRC states that a child has “the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.” States are particularly called on to ensure these rights “where the child would otherwise be stateless.” Article 8 CRC obligates Nepal to respect the child’s right to an identity “including nationality, name and family relations”. 1 The Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) was established in 1995 and has been working on citizenship rights from its inception, providing legal services to victims of discriminatory citizenship laws, delivering training and conducting research and advocacy. 2 The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (the Institute) is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. 3 The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights mobilizes international action for the removal of gender discriminatory provisions from all nationality laws and is led by its Steering Committee of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Women, Equality Now, Equal Rights Trust, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, and Women’s Refugee Commission. 4 This letter draws on a recent joint civil society submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Nepal made by its authors. See, Nepal Civil Society Network of Citizenship Rights, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 23rd Session of the Universal Periodic Review Nepal, March 2015. Available at: http://equalnationalityrights.org/images/NepalUPRprinting.pdf