Citizenship provision should be rewritten

                             

Citizenship issue should be reopened for the discussion in the Constitution Assembly.

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 his/her both parents-  mother and father- are Nepali citizens and if this provision as applied,  children of Nepali parents who  married to Indians  or foreigners would be rendered stateless.  

A survey conducted in 122 countries by the UNHCR, found Nepal as the only country which denies to confer citizenship by descent to the children whose father and mother both are not Nepali national.

A foreign man married to Nepali woman can acquire naturalized citizenship only if he has been living in Nepal continuously for 15 years whereas a foreign woman married to 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.

Therefore, the above mentioned issues of citizenship should be reopened in the Constitution Assembly debate and should be rewritten.