29. Statelessness is also prevalent among long-term refugee populations in the country. During the 1990s, over 100,000 ethnic Nepali Bhutanese – often referred to as ‘Lhotshampas’ – were displaced across the border into Nepal after being arbitrarily deprived of their nationality. The majority have since been resettled to third countries, but by the end of 2019, 19,574 remained in refugee camps in Nepal24 – all of whom are stateless. Tibetans living in exile in Nepal since as early as the 1950s, and their descendants, may also face statelessness in some cases because the acquisition of Nepali nationality is reported to be largely impossible for this group.25 30. Nepal is one of 25 countries globally with a nationality law that denies women the right to confer nationality on their children on an equal basis with men, and one of roughly fifty countries to deny women the right to acquire, change, or retain their nationality or confer nationality on spouses on an equal basis with men.26 31. The high level of statelessness in Nepal is therefore a result of patriarchal structures that discriminate against women and their children; combined with discriminatory attitudes of officials that restrict access to documentation; a discriminatory, caste-based system; and the failure to provide a durable solution to long-term refugees and protect their children’s right to nationality. National Law 32. Citizenship in Nepal is governed by the Constitution of Nepal and the Nepal Citizenship Act 2063 (2006). Citizenship can be obtained either by descent or naturalisation.. The Constitution recognises the right to identity as a fundamental right. Further, Article 10 states that “no Nepali citizen shall be denied the right to acquire citizenship”.27 The Constitution deems Nepali Citizens to be: a. persons acquiring citizenship by descent before the commencement of the Constitution; and b. persons whose mother or father was a citizen of Nepal at birth.28 33. However, as will be explored in greater detail below, this Constitutional provision is contradicted by other Constitutional provisions that deny women the right to confer nationality on their children. This pattern of contradiction can also be found in the Citizenship Act. 34. The existence of these discriminatory provisions have deprived those who should be eligible to acquire citizenship from obtaining it, rendering many stateless. These discriminatory provisions are outlined in the section below. 24 UNHCR, UNHCR Global Trends (2019), Table 1. Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘World’s Stateless Report’ (2014), available at: https://files.institutesi.org/worldsstateless.pdf, p. 123. 26 UNHCR, Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2019, (8 March 2019), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5c8120847.html. 27 Constitution of Nepal (2015), Article 10. 28 Constitution of Nepal (2015), Article 11(2). 25 6