and patriarchal beliefs. For example, as of April 2019, the Kathmandu District Administration Office was not accepting citizenship applications from people with foreign fathers and individuals whose father’s identity is unknown.38 In response, the Home Ministry issued a notice to chief district officers across the country asking them to apply the appropriate rules and grant citizenship by descent to those individuals whose parents are citizens by birth.39 As outlined in "Legal Analysis of Citizenship Law of Nepal": Putting a special condition for women creates a discrimination against them and puts their children at the risk of statelessness. Lack of clarification expands the discretionary power of the authorities on issuance of the citizenship, thereby making it difficult to implement this provision, especially in a non-discriminatory way.40 57. The application process itself also contributes to the low number of citizenship certificates that have been issued. Article 8 of the Nepal Citizenship Act provides guidance on the process, requiring the applicants to submit copies of certificates of their relatives from three generations of either their mother or father’s side.41 58. Another major obstacle can be the inability to produce documentation that states a birthplace, which is caused by a lack of birth certificates among members of socially-disadvantaged groups.42 Poor access to birth registration, in turn, is also caused by discriminatory attitudes of officials. The cost of the application can also be prohibitive, as there are costs associated with obtaining photographs, photocopies, supporting documents, and application fees.43 59. Whilst there is no legal barrier to women obtaining citizenship certificates through their parents after marriage to a Nepali man, “in practice, married women are required to submit citizenship documents of their spouse and his family in order to obtain citizenship”.44 60. A married woman must submit a formal attestation from her husband, father, or, if widowed, her husband’s family, that she qualifies for citizenship and has their permission to receive it. 45 This effectively means a woman’s citizenship is contingent upon her male family members’ cooperation. In many cases husbands have refused to attest for their wives for this purpose.46 61. Once married to foreigners, Nepali women who had not obtained their own citizenship certificate do not have a right to subsequently obtain it, according to Article 8(1) of the Nepal Citizenship Act. This discrimination places women in a vulnerable position and at risk of statelessness. This continues despite a Supreme Court decision in 2007 ordering citizenship to be issued without discrimination on the basis of gender and marital status and finding that 38 Tsering D Gurung, Delay in decision over citizenship through mothers leaves young people waiting—and without much hope, Kathmandu Post (3 April 2019), available at https://kathmandupost.com/national/2019/03/24/delay-in-decision-over-citizenship-through-mothersleaves-young-people-waitingand-without-much-hope. 39 Tsering D Gurung, Delay in decision over citizenship through mothers leaves young people waiting—and without much hope, Kathmandu Post (3 April 2019), available at https://kathmandupost.com/national/2019/03/24/delay-in-decision-over-citizenship-through-mothersleaves-young-people-waitingand-without-much-hope. 40 Forum for Women, Law and Development, ‘Legal Analysis of Citizenship Law of Nepal’ (2016), available at: http://fwld.org/publications/legal-analysis-citizenship-law-nepal/, p. 15. 41 Nepal Citizenship Act 2063 (2006), Article 8. 42 Open Society Justice Initiative, Submission to the Human Rights Committee prior to Adoption of List of Issues for Nepal (April 2015), p 5. 43 Open Society Justice Initiative, Submission to the Human Rights Committee prior to Adoption of List of Issues for Nepal (April 2015), p 5. 44 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and Nepal Civil Society Network of Citizenship Rights (2015), Nepal, Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 23rd Session of the Universal Periodic Review - Summary, Update and Proposed Recommendations for the consideration of States, available at http://www.institutesi.org/UPRNepal_short.pdf, p. 5. 45 United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Nepal Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2015, p. 20. 46 United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Nepal Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2015, p. 20. 10