Amend constitution to allow citizenship for children born overseas, says group
PETALING JAYA: Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has urged Putrajaya to amend the Federal Constitution to allow automatic citizenship for children born abroad to Malaysian women married to foreign spouses.
LFL coordinator Zaid Malek said dual-citizenship was no threat to the country’s sovereignty and security, adding that this was not a valid reason to deny Malaysian women their right to grant their children Malaysian citizenship.
He said the issue can be resolved if Putrajaya acknowledges that Malaysian women with foreign spouses should have the same rights to grant their children citizenship.
“This can be done by amending Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution to substitute the word ‘father’ with ‘parent’.
“Such an amendment would be consistent with the spirit of the Constitution as Article 8(2) itself has already disallowed any discrimination based on gender.
“The primary consideration here should ultimately be the rights of Malaysian women to have their children be citizens by operation of law; a right long granted to Malaysian men, but unconscionably denied to women,” he said in a statement today.
Last week, Deputy Home Minister Ismail Mohamed Said cited national security concerns as a reason to prevent a Malaysian woman married to a foreign spouse from conferring nationality on her child born abroad.
He said the reservation was to avoid the issue of dual-citizenship among children born abroad to Malaysian women with foreign husbands.
“This is because in other countries, (most) children born overseas will follow their father’s citizenship. Therefore we must be diligent to prevent the child from being granted dual-citizenship,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.
Zaid said it was ridiculous to suggest that newborns born overseas could threaten Malaysia’s security and sovereignty, adding that Putrajaya should also ban Malaysian men with foreign spouses from granting citizenship to their children born abroad if this was true.
He reminded Putrajaya that the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) granted equal rights for women to choose their children’s nationality.
He also dismissed the deputy minister’s suggestion that Article 15(2) of the Constitution was a solution to the matter, saying applications under this provision were not automatic.
“The children suffer the risk of being stateless should the application for citizenship be rejected. Being born to Malaysian mothers, these children cannot be denied citizenship at the whims and fancies of bureaucrats at the home ministry,” he said. - FMT
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