CHAPTER 2 The highest number of complaints concerned birth certificates, especially from those living in Sabah’s rural areas. Every child should be registered at birth as that is the first legal recognition of a child’s existence. It is a prerequisite for acquiring a birth certificate. This document provides permanent, official and visible evidence of the state’s legal recognition of a child as a member of society. Late registration of birth has repercussions when the child reaches schooling age. Under the Registration of Births and Deaths Ordinance (Sabah CAP 123, Sections 22 (3)), late registration of a birth must be endorsed by a First-Class Magistrate in court before NRD can accept it for issuing an identification card to a child in Sabah. Articles relating to citizenship are found in Part III of the Federal Constitution. The problem of being stateless is entangled with the broader issues of being ‘illegal’. Even if one could separate ‘stateless children’ from ‘undocumented children’, their practical experience is very similar. Despite their different ethnicities and family histories and the differing degrees of assistance offered by their ‘home’ countries, Indonesian and Filipino migrants’ children share many common experiences. Children who lack legal documents live in fear of being picked up by the police on buses, shopping centres or in their squatter settlements during raids aimed at ‘checking’ documents. We need to analyse the complexity of legally establishing an individual as ‘stateless’ in Sabah (as has been argued for other contexts) alongside the kind of ‘effective statelessness’ created by irregular migration. Given that IMM13 pass holders are potentially stateless but legally documented, it remains to be explored whether, in this specific context, there might be some advantage to being ‘stateless’ over being ‘undocumented’. 3.1 Signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - International Commitments on Stateless Problem SUHAKAM spearheaded the project on statelessness as one way to address the thorny issue of nationality in Sabah. SUHAKAM has been working with CHRP and Komnas HAM on this. SUHAKAM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with both these NHRIs to address statelessness in Sabah from a human rights perspective. SUHAKAM, Komnas HAM and CHRP agreed to the following joint actions: • Conduct research into the geopolitical nature and historical impetus of the problem, that is, root causes and push and pull ANNUAL REPORT 2020 71