New Delhi: Nepal's parliament has enacted a measure amending the Citizenship Act of 2006, allowing thousands of offspring of citizens by birth to gain citizenship by descent.
Despite objections from the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal, the Chamber of Representatives, Nepal's lower house, approved the much-debated law by a majority vote on Friday (Unified Marxist Leninist). The bill would go into effect after it is passed by the National Assembly, the upper house. The bill's advancement is crucial since it comes before of Nepal's general election later this year.
Naturalization was conferred to all qualified Nepali nationals born before September 20, 2015, the date the Nepali Constitution was promulgated. However, their children were denied citizenship due to a lack of legislation, as the constitution indicated that the provision granting them citizenship would be directed by federal law. Even seven years after the adoption of the national constitution, the country has yet to develop federal legislation.
According to Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs, 190,000 people were born with naturalised citizenship. What are the most significant changes in the new amendment? According to the language of the bill, if the amendment bill is approved by the upper house, anyone born in Nepal to a Nepali woman whose father is unknown will be granted citizenship by descent. The applicant's mother, on the other hand, must make an obligatory self-declaration that the father is not recognised. If it is discovered that the mother's assertion that the father of her iissue has not been identified is incorrect, she will be held accountable.
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