Malaysia’s human rights commission to seek royal support to block citizenship law changes

2024/07/12 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia is seeking royal support to block new citizenship laws that it says will render more people in the country stateless.

The commission, commonly referred to by its Malay language acronym Suhakam, is planning to submit a memorandum to the Conference of Rulers by July 16, outlining its objections to proposed legal amendments which have been described as “regressive” and “cruel” by critics.

Amendments to the Federal Constitution related to citizenship matters must have the consent of the Conference of Rulers – a council comprising the nine rulers of the Malay states of Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perlis, Terengganu, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Johor, and Perak, and the governors of the other four states, Penang, Melaka, Sabah and Sarawak.

One of the changes proposed by the Anwar Ibrahim administration is a long-awaited amendment to finally automatically confer citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.

But the new law will not be applied retrospectively, rendering it ineffective for those already born to Malaysian mothers outside the country.

Currently, only children born to Malaysian fathers abroad are automatically conferred Malaysian citizenship.

“We want it to be retrospective,” Suhakam commissioner Ragunath Kesavan, a former Malaysian Bar president, told The Straits Times.

Other proposed amendments are aimed at making it tougher to obtain citizenship, including lowering the age limit of childhood citizenship applications from 21 to 18, removing automatic citizenship for children of permanent residents born in the country, and stripping foreign wives of citizenship if the marriage is dissolved within two years of them becoming Malaysian.

“The amendments are the most regressive constitutional amendments ever brought by any government in Malaysia. They take away the rights of a child,” Mr Kesavan told a rights forum on July 5.

As for foreign wives, he pointed out that people taking up Malaysian citizenship have to give up citizenship in other countries, as holding dual citizenship is not permitted for Malaysians.

“In the first two years of marriage, if you are abused by your husband, you cannot walk out of that relationship,” he said.

“This is why we need to oppose the constitutional amendments.”

Source: Malaysia’s human rights commission to seek royal support to block citizenship law changes

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