Human Rights And Statelessness I N P E N I N S U L AR M AL AYS I A 1.3 Research questions In this research, we are interested in the following questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. What are the existing legal, policy, administrative, and institutional frameworks surrounding access to nationality in Peninsular Malaysia? What are the processes and practices surrounding citizenship and access to citizenship in Peninsular Malaysia? What are the core issues and gaps in accessing citizenship in Peninsular Malaysia? Specifically, what are the causes, barriers, risk factors, and consequences of statelessness? How do these issues intersect with human rights? What are some recommendations on measures or actions needed to prevent or alleviate the issue of statelessness in Peninsular Malaysia? 1.4 Objectives and variables of interest for this research study Acknowledging that statelessness is a broad, all-consuming topic, the study focuses on the following objectives and variables of interest. The first and main objective is to understand, using the lived experiences of stateless individuals, the circumstances leading to and risk factors surrounding statelessness, the process of acquiring citizenship, and the effects of statelessness on individuals — i.e. mapping out the entire ‘journey’ of statelessness by focusing on the foundational issues related to each circumstance. Under this objective, we do the following: • • Identify various causes and circumstances that contribute and give rise to statelessness in Malaysia; Define the different categories of proof of citizenship/ residency and the determination procedure in Malaysia by ° exploring challenges and difficulties faced in obtaining citizenship in Malaysia; ° providing legal definitions of terms used to describe, differentiate and explain any relationships of undocumented persons/ stateless persons/ refugees/ migrants/ asylum seekers; 8