Proposed Citizenship Bill ‘gender-biased’

Kathmandu, November 10:

The proposed Bill on Integration and Amendment to Nepal’s Citizenship Laws, which is being introduced to do away with discriminatory legal provisions regarding citizenship rights of women, has some discriminatory provisions.

A foreigner married to a woman having a Nepali citizenship certificate can get a Nepali citizenship certificate if the couple has been living in Nepal permanently. Children of such a couple can acquire Nepali citizenship certificates.

“Foreign women married to Nepali citizens can acquire Nepali citizenship certificates once they start the process of disowning their former citizenship. However, a foreigner married to a Nepali woman cannot acquire a Nepali citizenship certificate by virtue of marriage. Such a provision discriminates against Nepali women,” said Meera Dhungana, an advocate. Dhungana said the provision has not recognised independent identities of women. She said: “The provision is in violation of right to equality and the equal right to nationality ensured by international instruments.”

Such discriminatory provisions make it difficult for women to transfer their properties to husbands of foreign origins and children, she said.

As a State party to the CEDAW Convention, Nepal has made a commitment to provide equal rights to women to acquire, change or retain their nationality. Neither the marriage to a foreigner nor the change of nationality by her husband during the marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless, or force upon her the nationality of her husband, the convention states.