Proposed Constitutional Amendments Could Leave Devastating Impact on Stateless Children

For the longest time, civil society groups have been urging the government to make constitutional amendments to allow Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses to confer their citizenship to their overseas-born children. As it stands, the constitution only affords that right to fathers. The push for this started to gain momentum over the past few years. 

Things looked to be moving in the right direction when the MADANI government was formed and amendments to the constitution were on the horizon. However, the government’s proposed amendments have caused civil society groups to sound the alarm bells. NGOs have raised concern over proposed amendments to the Federal Constitution which they said would only exacerbate the issue of statelessness in the country and be detrimental to children – a classic case of one step forward, three steps back. 

We speak to Maalini Ramalo, Director of Social Protection, Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia. 

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