THE government must withdraw its appeal against a High Court decision for a five-year-old boy to be issued a birth certificate, Lawyers for Liberty said today.

Group director Zaid Malek said the appeal indicated that the government was not serious about addressing statelessness.

“Worse still, (it will) continue to perpetuate the problem by prolonging the issue by filing an unmeritorious appeal to render this unfortunate child stateless for life,” said Zaid in a statement.

“What possible justification can (there be) this? The DNA test has confirmed that the biological father of the child is a Malaysian citizen.

“What is the objective that the government is trying to achieve with this appeal?,” Zaid said in a statement. 

The Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 18 ordered the National Registration Department to issue a birth certificate for the boy to reflect his status as a Malaysian citizen 

Zaid said the court had rightfully determined that the boy was a citizen of Malaysia as the paternity of his Malaysian father had been established, as required under article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution.

He said the home minister, by setting up of a special committee to address the problem of statelessness, had also acknowledged that statelessness was a serious national issue. 

“Instead the Pakatan Harapan-led government, which promised repeatedly to protect human rights, is determined to stop this young child from getting his basic right to citizenship. Without citizenship the child’s future is bleak and dark. 

“Further, there is no moral justification… for the government to punish children who are born outside the institution of marriage with statelessness. 

“(These are the grounds) upon which the government wants to deny the child’s status as a Malaysian,” said Zaid. 

He added that the government had an international obligation under article 3 of the Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to have a child’s best interests as its primary obligation in all of its actions. 

Zaid said that by filing the appeal against the court order, the government was in direct violation of its international obligations under the CRC. 

“We strongly urge the government to withdraw its appeal against the decision of the High Court in this case and to respect the principles of law already laid down by the Federal Court. 

“The laws on citizenship must be expanded, and not regressed to the detriment of the children of our country who are blameless in the circumstances of their birth.” – May 27, 2023.