     retain some form of gender discrimination in their nationality laws, often exposing women and their children to statelessness.74 The most severe form is found in Brunei, where women have no right to pass nationality to their children in any circumstances. However, even where such explicitly discriminatory provisions have been abolished, gender is still very much a factor in statelessness. Recent proposed constitutional amendments in Malaysia seek to resolve the gender-discriminatory aspect of their laws by granting overseas born children of Malaysian mothers the same right to citizenship as those born to Malaysian fathers. Initial proposals to amend the constitution to remove the entitlement of foundlings from citizenship by operation of law to citizenship by registration (and thereby subject to the discretion of the government) were removed after significant backlash from civil society.75 Worryingly, this suggests that even longstanding protections against statelessness may be vulnerable to political will. Indeed, children are another vulnerable group that may suffer disproportionately from discriminatory nationality laws. Not only are children sometimes rendered stateless by gender discriminatory rules on citizenship, they may also be rendered stateless as some Asian countries still do not grant automatic access to citizenship to foundlings, i.e., children who are found or abandoned on their territory. This exposes numerous children in the region to risks of statelessness, as highlighted in the chapter on childhood statelessness in this volume.76 The injustice of such laws is evident; foundlings have no way of proving their descent but the very fact that they were found within the territory of the state should already be sufficient evidence that they were born in the country. Laws granting them citizenship automatically, rather than requiring them to seek citizenship by registration or through naturalization, thereby subjecting them to significant administrative hurdles, are necessary to prevent significant injustice. Interestingly, cross-border migration has also contributed to statelessness. Despite significant historical and present-day cross-border migra- See more at Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, ‘Asia Pacific’ <https:// equalnationalityrights.org/countries/asia-pacific> accessed 13 September 2023. 75 See Jaclyn Neo, ‘Malaysia’s Proposed Citizenship Amendments: Gender Equality Moving Ahead but Other Challenges Surface’ (ConstitutionNet, 3 October 2023) <https:// constitutionnet.org/news/malaysias-proposed-citizenship-amendments-gender-equalitymoving-ahead> accessed 1 April 2024. 76 See also Rodziana Mohamed Razali, Safeguarding against Statelessness at Birth: International Law and Domestic Legal Frameworks of ASEAN Members (Springer 2023). 74 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009399555.003 Published online by Cambridge University Press