UUM Journal of Legal Studies, 13, No. 1 (January) 2022, pp: 345–380 by that country as well as other countries. This phenomenon has been referred to as ‘de jure statelessness’ (Wass L.V, Ricalde, M.J.V, 2017). Statelessness within the Malaysian Context Ironically, the main causes of statelessness in Malaysia could be due to several reasons. They included issues such as the lack of or absence of birth registration and documents for the children, or the parents could not produce a valid marriage certificate. The children born from undocumented, illegal, irregular migrants or stateless refugees, foundlings or abandoned children also faced the risk of statelessness (Razali et al., 2015). The issue of stateless children in Malaysia has been pointed out in several research articles, particularly the meaning and definition of stateless children (Mazura & Nor Hafizah, 2018, Lumayag, 2016, Razali, et al., 2015). At present, in Malaysia, there is no specific policy or law that provides a legal definition for stateless children or people in this country. Civil society, NGOs and government authorities face challenges to identify stateless children or people in this country, and this state of affairs has hindered the ability of the government in effectively addressing the issue of stateless children. As such, it is essential for the government authorities, NGOs and civil society to understand the meaning of stateless children within the context of international law and human rights law. A clear understanding of stateless children is important for governments and NGOs, particularly in formulating conclusive, clear definitions and policies related to them. The findings of the present study are aimed at providing the needed support to address the foregoing sketch of the background issues. ANALYSIS A. The Definition, Categorization and Data on Stateless Children (i) Definition Article 1, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989 gives a clear definition of who is considered a ‘child’: 348