iii. Inconsistencies in relevant laws, that is the Federal Constitution, Adoption Act 1952, and the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957. Sabah and Sarawak have additional causal factors – the extensive geographical land areas have made it difficult for rural people from both states to access the registration office in the cities. Furthermore, for Sarawak, the Special Committee (JKK) established before 2018 to review the citizenship applications and recommend those qualified application to be considered by the Minister of Home Affairs has been dissolved. The consultations made the followings recommendations: CHAPTER 4 (i) There should be more programmes to raise awareness amongst society on the importance of registering marriages, including customary marriages; (ii) MOHA must execute the SOP that was established on 1 January 2020 to expedite prosessing of citizenship applications; (iii) All NRD branches whether at federal or state level must standardise their administrative procedures to avoid inconsistencies in their system for the registration of birth of children without documents; (iv) Article 14(1)(b) and Second Schedule, Part II, Section 1 (b) and Section 17 in the Federal Constitution must be reformed to prevent statelessness among children whose mothers are citizens; and (v) The Adoption Act 1952 must be reviewed to allow adopted children to have the same rights as children born of lawful wedlock. Currently, stateless children who are adopted by Malaysian parents are not conferred citizenship automatically by their adoptive parents. The adoptive parents must apply for citizenship under Article 15A of Federal Constitution, and there is no guarantee the application will be granted. a) Visits to Three Children’s Homes Related to Stateless Children On 8 July and 13 July, the OCC visited three children’s shelter homes that house stateless children - Kompleks Kebajikan Laila Taib (PERYATIM) and Persatuan Pendidikan D’Wira in Kuching, Sarawak, and OrphanCare Foundation in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. PERYATIM and OrphanCare are not shelter homes for stateless children but during the visit stateless children were found there. From these visits, OCC collated a list of stateless children cases to be followed up with the relevant ministers. ANNUAL REPORT 2020 91