Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 45th Session of the Universal Periodic Review. Malaysia Introduction 1. Advocates for Non-discrimination and Access to Knowledge (ANAK), Association of Family Support & Welfare Selangor & KL (Family Frontiers), Borneo Komrad, Buku Jalanan Chow Kit, Yayasan Chow Kit, Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia, Elom Initiatives (Elom), Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), Lawyers for Liberty and Nationality for All (NFA) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the right to a nationality and human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness in Malaysia. 2. This submission focuses on: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. The Child’s Right to Nationality and Childhood Statelessness The Bajau Laut in Sabah, East Malaysia Gender Discrimination in Malaysia’s Citizenship Law People of Indian Origin Refugees and Irregular Migrants (and their Descendants) Consequences of Statelessness in Malaysia Malaysia’s Universal Periodic Review Under the Third Cycle 3. Despite the prevalence of statelessness, gender discriminatory nationality laws and related human rights challenges in the country, Malaysia did not raise any nationality or statelessness issues in its State Report before its previous UPR in 2018.1 4. During the 2018 UPR, Malaysia received three recommendations on ensuring gender equality in national legislation and policies in respect of the conferral of nationality to children and/or spouses (Belgium, Haiti, Iceland), three recommendations on withdrawing reservations, inter alia, to article 9 CEDAW (Turkey, Sweden, Norway) and one recommendation on protecting 1 National report submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 16/21, A/HRC/WG.6/31/MYS/1, 23 August 2018, Available at: https://documents-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/256/22/PDF/G1825622.pdf?OpenElement. 1