HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Draft articles on citizenship in Nepal’s proposed new constitution risk making many Nepali children stateless, Human Rights Watch said today. Some of the proposed citizenship provisions are sharply at odds with Nepal’s obligations under international law as well as the explicit commitment in the draft constitution itself to prevent statelessness, Human Rights Watch said.
The current draft, as modified by the High Level Task Force created to review the draft constitutional provisions in November 2010, specifies that a child would automatically be granted Nepali citizenship only if both parents prove they are Nepali citizens. Human Rights Watch urges the Constituent Assembly to amend the draft to allow a child born to either a Nepali mother or a Nepali father to be able to claim citizenship by descent.
Human Rights Watch for more
(Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of SACW)