REGIONAL OVERVIEW (Nepal, New Zealand, Samoa, and Singapore) in the region.120 Administrative Barriers Administrative barriers to accessing citizenship have rendered a vast number of populations stateless or with uncertain nationality statuses even in states across the Asia-Pacific where citizenship laws provide protection. In East Asia, the central role played by household registration in verifying one’s citizenship and realising the associated rights cannot be overstated. The impact of these systems on the realisation of citizenship is specifically notable in China, Japan and South Korea among children of migrants, ethnic minority groups and those of uncertain nationalities.122 Notably, within South Asia, administrative practice and policy have led to the citizenship laws of Bangladesh shifting in application from jus soli to jus sanguinis in their application.123 This ‘paradigmatic policy shift’124 has compounded intergenerational statelessness among children born in the country, especially among the estimated 75,000 children of Rohingya refugees.125 Similar lack of implementation of jus soli provisions has been seen in Pakistan where children born to foreigners do not automatically acquire Pakistani citizenship.126 In Southeast Asia, in the past decades the provision and withdrawal of civil registration documents has been complex, discriminatory and a key component of the persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar.127 Ethnic minority groups in Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam have also faced barriers to gaining civil registration and citizenship, with such barriers leading to protracted and intergenerational statelessness.128 Administrative barriers to nationality appear to be less prevalent in the Pacific compared to areas such as East Asia where household registration REGIONAL OVERVIEW plays a vital evidentiary role for citizenship, or South and Southeast Asia where exclusion from civil registration has been used as a tool of ethnic discrimination.129 Statelessness and Climate Change As a region, the Pacific faces some of the greatest risks and has seen the greatest attention regarding the threat of climate-induced statelessness. Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu as lowlying states are expected to be impacted to the greatest extent from climate-induced sea-level rise.130 The risk of statelessness from ‘disappearing states’ currently remains a hypothetical question, with most experts agreeing that this scenario will not inevitably lead to statelessness.131 Before any states ‘disappear’, the impacts of relocation and an increase in displacement on communities and individual’s nationality status will need to be faced.132 It is this displacement across borders rather than the ‘disappearance’ of islands that poses the greatest risk of statelessness in the future. Less attention has been paid to the potential impacts of climate change on other regions in the Asia-Pacific.133 Birth registration In South Asia, discriminatory administrative and practical barriers have fundamentally limited the ability of women and minority groups in Afghanistan and Nepal to gain identity documentation and to confirm their status as citizens.134 Barriers to ethnic minority groups accessing birth registration and documentation have deeply affected populations in India and Pakistan.135 In the case of the ethnic Bengali population in Pakistan, such barriers have embedded statelessness for hundreds of thousands of people across generations.136 The denial of civil registration documents and arbitrary and discriminatory applications of policy FIGURE 04 Low rates of birth registration in the Pacific 50 million children in Indonesia at risk of statelessness 13% 67% 43% Papua New Guinea Vanuatu Samoa Source: UN Statistics Division, ‘Coverage of Birth and Death Registration’, February 2021 have played a key role in causing and compounding statelessness in Southeast Asia. For example, low birth registration rates and barriers to birth registration especially among children of migrant workers and communities living in poverty have placed as many as 50 million children in Indonesia at risk of statelessness.137 Administrative and practical barriers to accessing birth registration have placed as many as 130,000 Sama Bajau (or ‘Bajut Laut’) community members — who reside in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia — at risk of statelessness.138 Low rates of birth registration across several countries in the Pacific — notably Papua New Guinea (13%), Vanuatu (43%) and Samoa (67%)139 — place some isolated and minority groups at risk of statelessness. While all states in East Asia have high reported rates of birth registration between 90-100%,140 the central role played by household registration systems in evidencing citizenship places children of irregular migrants at risk of statelessness.141 Stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific Approximately 200 former SNAP members operated from countries across the Asia-Pacific. Over half of these members (101), including 33 active members, were operating from countries within Southeast Asia. Connections across the region vary with high concentrations of SNAP membership in Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand and notably low membership concentration in states such as Timor-Leste and Vietnam. While at least 50 former SNAP members were either based in or focused on statelessness in the Pacific, almost the entirety of these members were based within Australia (the exception being two based in New Zealand) and only seven members were active. 26 former SNAP members were based in South Asia, however, 20 were active members. Ten former SNAP members were based in East Asia, with six being active members of the network. Current NFA partners NFA has six partner organizations with whom we are working closely. All the six organizations are working on the statelessness issue. The partner organizations are listed below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Council of Minorities - Bangladesh Citizenship Affected People's Network (CAPN) - Nepal Development and Justice Initiative (DAJI) India Family Frontiers - Malaysia Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Indonesia Women Peace Makers (WPM) - Cambodia Stateless and affected person led organisations and networks Japan appears to be the only country within East Asia with a network of persons with lived experience, with the Japanese Stateless Network formed in 2009 and registered in 2011. 24 25 STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC REPORT 2023