By TON Nepal

On Sunday, amid opposition from three main parties, the parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Commission permitted an amendment bill on the Citizenship Act through the facility that foreign women married to Nepali men will have to wait for seven years to get naturalized nationality.

The House committee had debated and went ahead with the seven-year provision after the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) took a decision to that effect. According to the chair of the committee, the citizenship amendment bill has been permitted by majority votes. A foreign woman married to a Nepali man will be allowed naturalized citizenship after her constant stay in Nepal for seven years.

In the 27-member committee, the ruling party holds a majority with 16 members. The Nepali Congress has six members and the Rashtriya Janata Party and the Samajbadi Party have two members. Of the 27 members, eight, including the committee chair are women.

The Nepali Congress, Samajbadi Party Nepal, and Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal had opposed the provision, calling it unconstitutional and saying that it goes against the provision of the interim constitution 2006, as per which the Citizenship Act allowed foreign women to acquire naturalized citizenship after getting married to Nepali men.

According to Clause 5.1 of the Citizenship Act, foreign women are instantly qualified for citizenship upon marriage to a Nepali man while there are no provisions for a foreign man who marries a Nepali woman, requiring foreign men to pass a minimum of 15 years in Nepal before being qualified to apply for naturalized citizenship.

The House committee did not deliberate the issue of foreign men marrying Nepali women. Earlier on Sunday, a gathering of the office bearers of the Nepali Congress had decided to register a note of dissent if the ruling party went to the amendment bill in the parliamentary committee.

In its five-point reminder, the party has said the provision in the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006 regarding the naturalized citizenship for foreign women who enter into marriage with Nepali men must continue.

The Nepali Congress demands that the bill's planned modifications should be made per earlier provisions of the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006, which was approved as per an understanding among the political parties.

It is obvious that the change in the previous provision of the marital naturalized citizenship will bring a constitutional crisis, as Article 289 of the charter allows naturalized citizens to take part in politics except for assuming the top positions including President, Vice President, prime minister, Speaker, chairman of the National Assembly and chief minister.

The parliamentary committee has incorporated a provision that foreign women married to Nepali men would be provided with an identity card of a permanent resident allowing them to enjoy economic, social, and cultural rights until they have naturalized citizenship.

The Citizenship Act was enrolled in unanimity and the constitutional facility permits political rights, except for some positions, for people having naturalized citizenship. A single party cannot amend the provision that was adopted in the consensus of all parties.

The rights activists have called the seven-year condition for foreign women married to Nepali men as a reverting move. The issue of citizenship is linked with an individual’s human rights. Such a faulty provision means women would be deprived of their fundamental human rights. This provision is not only against the spirit of the constitution that ensures equality but also against the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.

Rights activists have also pointed to problems that children of foreign women married to Nepali men could face in case their relationship gets strained before the seven-year period. According to them, this could make such children stateless.

There are also concerns about the House committee treating foreign women and foreign men married to Nepali citizens differently. According to rights activists, the provision that a foreign man has to wait for 15 years after marrying a Nepali woman to obtain Nepali citizenship shows how the state still continues to treat women as second-class citizens, with rarer rights for her matched to Nepali men.

Some women leaders from the ruling party said that the decision taken by a male nine-member Secretariat on the issue that concerns women is biased and there is a need to take decisions by treating women and men as equals and the relevant clause should not say ‘man’ or ‘woman’ but ‘citizen’, so as not to victimize against anyone on the basis of sex a ruling party lawmaker and rights activist. The clause should say that any foreign citizen marrying a Nepali citizen.

As women are being denied equal rights in the name of national security and sovereignty, when it comes to citizenship women are wholly flawed. One should speak with certain facts if there are any; one cannot just point at national security, undermining women’s rights.

Apparently, the seven-year rule is against the spirit of the constitution. It is against the feelings of millions of people living in the neighboring areas where people from both sides logically have married relationships.