National Institution for Human Rights – Kingdom of Bahrain 14. Within the scope of NIHR mandate to receive complaints, five complaints were received concerning the right to nationality, two of which were received from stateless persons, while two complaints were received from two Bahraini women married to foreigners who requested granting their children the Bahraini nationality. One complaint was received from a foreigner married to a Bahraini national who requested the acquisition of the Bahraini nationality. 15. NIHR considered the received complaints and expressed its legal opinion thereon. The Ministry of Interior was addressed concerning four complaints, but the National Institution received no response despite the repeated correspondences. As regards the fifth complaint, NIHR found that there was no violated right. 16. Concerning NIHR inquiry about the number of (stateless) people who do not have any documents and the legal procedure taken in this regard, the Ministry responded that there are no cases of stateless persons, which is contrary to what was received by NIHR about the cases of a number of people who do not have any nationality, in addition to 31 citizens whose nationality was forfeited. The decision to forfeit nationality results in considering these persons as stateless. RECOMMENDATIONS: In light of the foregoing, the National Institution for Human Rights recommends the following: 1. Urging the legislative authority to pass a new citizenship law to be commensurate with the political, economic, and social conditions of the Bahraini community, and to be in line with the international human rights instruments. 2. Urging the legislative authority to include in the new citizenship law clear and specific controls and legal standards in the cases where the Bahraini citizenship is granted by naturalization. 3. The citizenship law should incorporate the Bahraini women right to grant citizenship to her children according to legal controls, in line with international human rights instruments and the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain commitments before the Human Rights Council at the Universal Periodic Review. 4. Taking the legislative measures that ensure granting the Bahraini women children, who have no father or who have a stateless father, the right to acquire the Bahraini nationality, on an equal footing with the person who has a Bahraini mother and unknown father, or whose paternity has not been legally established. 5. Urging the government to lift its reservations as to Paragraph (2) Article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, so that the Bahraini woman has equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of her children, since this does not conflict with the Islamic principles and provisions. 6. Avoiding the forfeiture of Bahraini citizenship, except in specific and exceptional situations prescribed by the law. Forfeiture should be based on final court judgments and any person whose nationality has been forfeited should not be declared as stateless in order to avoid statelessness in the community, which poses serious risks to stability. 7. The need to reinstate citizenship to those who were deprived of it (31 citizens), under Article 11 of the Bahraini Citizenship Act of 1963, as amended, which authorizes the King to reinstate the Bahraini citizenship to those who have lost it, under the provisions of the law. 59