The emergence of stateless children due to the failure of mothers in changing citizenship, with the case study of the Iranian legal system

In recent years, and with the authorized or unauthorized entry of foreign nationals, including immigrants and refugees, to Iran, and with a significant number of such foreign nationals marrying Iranian women and, therefore, stripping those women of their Iranian nationality, subsequent to the return of those foreign nationals to their own countries, the Iranian society has faced the issue of orphaned children who do not possess birth certificates or any Identity documents for that matter. Such children are legally considered to be of the same nationality as that of the father and their birth certificates are to be issued in accordance with the laws of the father s country of origin. However, such children still practically live in Iran as stateless children. Therefore, such children are deprived of many rights and face a great many problems. Such conditions are inconsistent with the commitments undertaken by Iran (ensuring the identity and nationality right of children) in Children s Right Convention (1989). The effects of the discrimination imposed upon Iranian women marrying foreign men and, therefore, failing to give their nationality to their children have put families in a state of confusion and uncertainty. Iranian mothers face such unfair legal conditions in circumstances where they cannot provide for the needs of their children. Considering all these points, the state legislators in Iran must take steps, such as maintaining Iranian nationality for Iranian mothers marrying foreign nationals and expanding the Jus Sanguinis to include Iranian mothers, to make modifications in the laws in order to avoid the emergence of stateless children. Therefore, due to the inefficiency of the law which determines the identity of the children resulting from marriages between Iranian women and foreign men and the need to modify its rules, such modification can be a proper measure in order to solve the difficulties of deprivation faced by those children whose mothers have married foreign nationals.

کلیدواژه ها:

principle of unity ، mothers ، children ، statelessness ، difficulties