KUALA LUMPUR – The apparent lack of updates on the constitutional amendments on citizenship has irked rights group Family Frontiers, saying it has been seven months since the parliamentary committee was formed to study the matter.
The group has called for the committee to disclose updates on the study and for the results to be made public.
The committee was given six months to finalise its study after which it will be submitted to the cabinet and the Conference of Rulers.
“We would also like to stress the importance of consulting with grassroots organisations and impacted communities to ensure that on-the-ground realities and struggles are taken into account.
“By delaying the reform for Malaysian women’s equal citizenship rights, the government deliberately continues to place its women and children in positions of harm and violence.
“Malaysian women live a lifetime of uncertainty; they also live with the possibility of being trapped in toxic/abusive marriages when the child’s legal status is completely dependent on the foreign father’s.”
It added that children continue to be denied equal access to rights such as affordable healthcare, education and the right to stay with their families.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. The government must provide a timeframe for the amendment.”
The home minister on September 22 announced in Parliament the government’s commitment to a constitutional amendment to “facilitate citizenship by ‘operation of law’ for overseas-born children of Malaysian women”.
On September 9, the high court here ruled that Malaysian mothers have the right to confer citizenship to their children born overseas, on equal basis with Malaysian men.
The court ruled that Article 14(1)(b) of the federal constitution together with the Second Schedule, Part II, Section 1(b), pertaining to citizenship rights, must be read in harmony with Article 8(2) of the federal constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.
High court judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir announced that the word “father” must be read to include mothers, and that their children are entitled to citizenship by operation of law.
Meanwhile, the decision for the government’s appeal against the high court ruling was refixed to August 5.
The Court of Appeal’s three-member panel comprising justices Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Azizah Nawawi and Datuk S. Nantha Balan will deliver their decision in open court. – The Vibes, July 29, 2022
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