Terai Human Rights Bulletin Issue 7

The focus of this quarterly bulletin from Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRD Alliance) is on the citizenship issue in Nepal. A research report published in April, 2014 by Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) shows that 20% of the Nepali population does not have Citizenship Certificates. To durably resolve the issue of citizenship in Nepal, the citizenship issue should be reopened in the Constituent Assembly. Since 1952, the citizenship laws have incorporated discriminatory provision relating to Citizenship and those provisions are at the root of citizenship problems in the country . Why does the Constituent Assembly Secretariat put the citizenship clauses as an agreed issue? All the political leaders who were interviewed by Arjun Sah such as Upendra Yadav , Rajendra Mahato , Laxman Lal Karna and Mahantha Thakur all disputed the CA secretariat's version on citizenship that said the issue had already been settled in the last CA. A high level task force had reached an 11-point agreement on citizenship in 2010. As per this agreement a citizen can obtain citizenship by descent only if both his/her parents- mother and father- are Nepali citizens. Should this provision be passed, children of Nepali parents who are married to Indians or foreigners would likely be rendered stateless. A foreign man married to Nepali woman can acquire citizenship through naturalization only if he has been living in Nepal continuously for 15 years whereas a foreign woman married to a Nepali man can acquire citizenship just after the marriage. Madhesi citizens are badly affected by this provision where nothing has been clearly mentioned, about citizenship by descent and the naturalised citizenship. Thousands of other youths are born in the shadows and live in perpetual exclusion. There is also an ethnic bias in the district administration offices that deny citizenship to Madhesis. Often the chief district officers (CDOs) who are responsible to issue citizenship certificates belong to the Pahadi Community who hold prejudices against the Madhesis and perceive them as Indians.
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http://taraihumanrights.org/uploads/wordfile/13_Terai%20Human%20Rights%20Bulletin%20Issue%207,%20May%201,%202014.pdf