Stateless Minorities in Madagascar, including Communities of Indo-Pakistani and Comorian Descent 28. Madagascar has a sizeable community of Muslims of Indo-Pakistani origin, often referred to as the ‘Karana’,16 who have migrated to the country during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many among this community failed to acquire any citizenship (be it Malagasy, French, Indian, Pakistani, or English) at the time of Madagascar’s independence from France (1960), and have not been able to resolve this since. 29. In addition to those of Indo-Pakistani descent, racial discrimination causes statelessness among individuals of Comorian origin and others who are not perceived as ethnically Malagasy. These groups are also unable to access naturalisation17 and even those who are theoretically eligible for nationality face difficulties in acquiring documentation and proof of citizenship as a result of discriminatory administrative practices. 30. Madagascar’s 1993 national census reported 0.2% of Madagascar’s 12.3 million population (at the time) as foreign and 9.3% of these - or 2,200 persons - as stateless.18 This is likely to be an underrepresentation of the number currently affected. Firstly, it is important to keep in mind the limitations inherent in reporting the size of a stateless population based on self-identification in a census alone, for people may not know or be reluctant to indicate their nationality status as stateless. Secondly, Madagascar’s total population has since grown significantly –to over 26.6 million by the end of 2018. The lack of safeguards in the nationality law to prevent statelessness being passed to the next generation means that problem of statelessness is likely to have grown with it. 31. There has yet to be a comprehensive mapping of statelessness in Madagascar to confirm the current number of persons affected, and reliable data remains unavailable. UNHCR has suggested that the population of those of Indo-Pakistani descent is estimated to be at least 20,00019 and within that group, “only a handful of individuals hold citizenship rights”. Addressing the discriminatory nature of the law, the US Department of State, in its annual human rights reporting, emphasised that: Muslim leaders estimated the laws affected as much as 5 percent of the approximately two million Muslims in the country. Members of the wider Muslim community suggested a Muslim sounding name alone could delay one’s citizenship application indefinitely.20 Consequences of Gender Discrimination in the Nationality Law and Statelessness in Madagascar 32. Gender discrimination in Madagascar’s nationality law denies women equality under the law, as enshrined in the Constitution of Madagascar, and implicitly establishes women to be second-class citizens, further exacerbating a sexist and discriminatory framework for women’s role in the family and society. Women’s unequal ability to confer nationality on spouses also negatively impacts women’s ability to freely choose a spouse, to form a family, and to ensure family unity. 33. This discrimination can also perpetuate statelessness, when the spouse of a Malagasy woman is stateless or may lose his nationality due to prolonged absence from his country of origin. The existence 16 As previously noted, this group finds the term Karana to be derogatory. ibid, 12-13, 48; Caroline McInerney, ‘Accessing Malagasy Citizenship: The Nationality Code and Its Impact on the Karana’ (2014) Tilburg Law Review 19. 18 The national census report is available here: http://www.gripweb.org/gripweb/sites/default/files/databases_info_systems/Madagascar_RGPH%20Vol2%20Tome1.pdf . 19 See https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2017/11/5a018ff44/madagascars-karana-people-still-awaiting-nationality.html 20 US Department of State, Country reports on human rights practices for 2018: Madagascar. Available at: https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm#wrapper 17 5