Nationality
is a legal bond between a state, while statelessness refers to the condition of
an individual who is not considered as a national by any state.
Myanmar
(Burma) has one of the world’s largest populations of stateless people and this
is a massive problem because statelessness has a terrible impact on individuals
by depriving them of enjoyment of the full range human rights, i.e. individuals
are generally blocked from obtaining employment, education, health care
services and so forth. This problem of statelessness in Myanmar (Burma) and in
the rest part of the world emerges due discriminatory and inadequate
nationality laws. The leading approach in the fight against statelessness is
ratification and implementation of various international norms related with
nationality and statelessness provided by United Nations and other
international organizations, e.g. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
and Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, as well as others
such as European Convention on Nationality or Hague Convention on Certain
Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws.
The legal
analysis of Myanmar’s (Burma) domestic nationality law enables to conclude that
this county is very distant from the international standards in nationality
field, because it has not ratified either of aforementioned statelessness Conventions
which are vital to the battle against statelessness and which regulate many
severely vulnerable areas.
Myanmar
(Burma) has only acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
However, norms of these Conventions are very laconic and regulate just very
specific aspects of statelessness problem, thus, providing far less benefit
than the ratification of, for instance, Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
would. What is more, Myanmar (Burma) even fails to implement those several
international obligations which it has undertaken: Article 7 of Convention on the
Rights of the Child prescribes that a child has the right to acquire a
nationality and States Parties are obliged to ensure the implementation of this
right under the relevant international instruments, in particular where the
child would otherwise be stateless. However, Myanmar (Burma) has not adopted
any measures or mechanisms for this.
So, if
Myanmar (Burma) fails to implement its own obligations, it is meaningless to
expect that this country could take into account other international principles
and standards which are not applicable within its territory. The legal analysis
confirms that. For instance, Burma’s Citizenship Law does not ensure
nationality under Article 1 and 4 of Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness to a child born outside or inside the country, if otherwise
stateless, and does not at all regulate the question of abandoned children
under Article 2 of Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness or Article 14
of Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality
Laws. Sadly, Burma’s Citizenship Law does not provide facilitated
naturalization for stateless persons as it is required by Article 32 of
Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, as well. The possibility
to naturalize as a citizen of Myanmar (Burma) is not even vested for
foreigners.
The worst
part of the Myanmar’s (Burma) nationality laws is racial discrimination.
According to Burma’s Citizenship Law provisions, the citizenship of Myanmar
(Burma) is granted only to certain ethnic groups that have settled within the
State in a certain period. Moreover, the Council of State may decide
independently whether to grant citizenship to any ethnic group or not. These
provisions apparently contradict international norms which forbid to deprive any person or group of persons of nationality
on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds.
Notwithstanding,
there are aspects in which Myanmar (Burma) does better. For instance, its
nationality laws provide some safeguards against statelessness in the context
of loss of nationality. One of the most significant norms is Article 15(a)
which ensures that citizen would not automatically lose his citizenship merely
by marriage to a foreigner. This norm accords with international standard that
any change in personal status (like marriage) should not affect a person’s nationality
and if it nonetheless does, such change should be conditional upon not
rendering the person stateless. A noticeable achievement of Myanmar’s (Burma)
nationality law is non gender-sensitive norms, as well.
Taking
everything into consideration, it is obvious that Myanmar’s (Burma) nationality
law lacks attention to international principles and standards related with
nationality and statelessness and is more incompatible with them than consistent.
Therefore, United Nations and other international organizations have to work
with Myanmar’s (Burma) government and persuade it to ratify more international
Conventions on nationality and statelessness.
Simante Tomkeviciute, Student of the course 'Nationality, Statelessness and Human Rights' offered by the Statelessness Programme at Tilburg University
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