Human Rights And Statelessness
I N P E N I N S U L AR M AL AYS I A
As for birth registrations of an abandoned child, registration of the
child’s place of birth will be based on the area where the child is found,
as provided for in Section 15. The person who finds the abandoned child
will be in charge of the child under Section 10. This is typically done by a
Protector from JKM who is responsible for securing the birth certificate
of the child. Abandoned children who are found are exempt from the
late birth registration fees under Section 11(1) and (2). There is no time
limit for birth registration of a child because birth registrations are a
prerequisite for a person’s identity, and failure to do so may deprive them
from accessing other rights and basic services which require proof of
identity (Azizah Mohd, 2011).
In practice, birth registrations for an abandoned child are missing a lot of
important information such as their surname, place of birth, and details of
their parents, as shown in Figure 6. Without this information, the abandoned
child would be unable to prove their genuine link to the country in order
to qualify for Malaysian citizenship by operation of law. The Registrar will
typically register the child’s citizenship status as “to be determined”. This
practice is one of the biggest causes of childhood statelessness amongst
abandoned children who are born in and have been living in Malaysia but
the circumstances of their birth make them unable to prove their genuine
and effective link to Malaysian citizenship. Nevertheless, it is important
for abandoned children to obtain birth certificates because it is their only
proof of identification and manifestation of their right to an identity, so
they can use it to apply for citizenship or for adoption applications.
As for the practice of birth registration in Islamic law, the practice falls
under the concept of protecting the public interest (al-masalih al mursalah)
(Azizah Mohd, 2011).
An abandoned child’s name can be changed or added in cases where they
were previously registered without a name within 12 months of the finding
of the child under Section 15 of the BDRA (Azizah Mohd, 2011). This is
important because evidence can be produced to the Registrar General to
declare a child to be legitimate under Section 5 of the Legitimacy Act 1961.
This is only applicable to the non-Muslim children as the Legitimacy Act
1961 does not apply to Muslims under Section 3 of the Legitimacy Act.
As for Muslim children’s right to identity, Islamic law protects the right of
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