Right of transferring citizenship to children Citizens have the right to transfer their citizenship to their children. This is the right of citizenship by descent. However, in Bahrain, this applies to only male citizens. Bahraini citizenship is transferred by descent only through the father. Individuals are not eligible for citizenship by birth, as is the practice in some countries such as the United States. A child could have been born in the country and have a Bahraini mother, but as long as the child’s father is not a Bahraini citizen, the child is not eligible for citizenship in Bahrain.3 As almost all of those who have had their citizenship revoked in Bahrain are men, this entails that they lose the right to transfer their Bahraini citizenship to their newborns—a right that they once enjoyed. This often results in the fact that their children are born into statelessness. Bahrainis who have had their citizenship revoked in exile are also affected. If the country they live in does not grant citizenship to children by birth, their children are born stateless. This has been the case for those exiled in the UK who have no other citizenship than the Bahraini they once had (Alwadaei 2017). “If the country they live in does not grant citizenship to children by birth, their children are born stateless… In this way, citizenship revocation not only affects the one whose citizenship is revoked, but also his family” In this way, citizenship revocation not only affects the one whose citizenship is revoked, but also his family. If the denaturalised person has children, he has to expect the same living conditions for his children as he experiences as a result of the citizenship revocation. This includes lack of identification documents. For example, parents have reported difficulties with even obtaining birth certificates for their children in Bahrain. Furthermore, these children are not eligible to receive free health services as citizens are. This has led to children not receiving the ordinary vaccinations provided to other children at the same age (Bahrain Center for Human Rights 2017). Stateless individuals do not have free access to public health and may also not afford private health care due to their economic situation. It is also possible to obtain Bahraini citizenship by naturalisation. For this, there are some residency and language recruitments. There has nevertheless been a systematic discrimination in the naturalisation policy of the Bahraini government. The authorities have showed favour to people coming from Sunni-majority countries such as Pakistan and Yemen, whereas stateless groups with Shia Muslim background who have lived in Bahrain for a long time are often not provided citizenship (NGOs 2015). It is Bahraini women can transfer citizenship to their children only when “the father is unknown or fatherhood is not substantiated,” according to the Citizenship Act. There is no safeguard for children whose father is stateless. 3 http://community.apsanet.org/migrationcitizenship/home 34