In Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is stated that all individuals have the right to citizenship and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of their citizenship. Statelessness or lack of citizenship is a serious and significant problem. Measures have been taken to prevent or reduce statelessness in several international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, conventions on the rights of the child, married women’s citizenship, reduction of statelessness, stateless persons’ status, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to the Civil and Political Rights Covenant, every child has the right to acquire citizenship. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also mentions and emphasizes the right of children to have citizenship, with the declaration that the registration of children’s births will be done immediately after their birth. It is stated that children have the right to a name and citizenship from birth. Member states must ensure the implementation of these rights. In cases where there is a risk of a child being stateless, this right must be implemented regardless of the principle and origin of their parents. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women also supports the non-change of women’s citizenship by force during divorce, marriage, or change of their spouse’s citizenship.

These treaties have not only been created to address statelessness; however, the Reduction of Statelessness Convention (1961) focuses exclusively on reducing statelessness. Under this convention, many individuals who may otherwise become stateless will be able to acquire citizenship, and member states must provide means for all persons born within their territory to acquire citizenship. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons aims to protect stateless individuals rather than eradicating statelessness. Citizenship is important because most states only allow their own nationals to fully exercise political, civil, economic, and social rights within their borders. Citizenship gives individuals the ability to benefit from their own government’s protection and also allows the government to provide protection to its nationals in accordance with international law.

A new class of humans with unknown citizenship in Iran.

Until 2006, there were approximately 200,000 children born from marriages between Iranian women and foreign men in the country. However, currently, one million people are facing problems with citizenship and identity, and due to the fact that children born from marriages between Iranian women and foreign men do not have the right to access facilities and education, it is possible that they will face issues such as addiction, which will have social consequences for the country.

Experts believe that if the law of not issuing birth certificates to children whose mothers have married foreign men does not change soon, it will threaten various harms to Iranian society. It is estimated that this population currently consists of one million people.

The root of the problem dates back to several decades ago; the influx of Afghan immigrants who had left their homeland due to war in Afghanistan and had made their way to Iran, on one hand, and Iraqi immigrants who had left their country due to the oppression of Saddam or later the US invasion of Iraq and had made their way to Iran, on the other hand, created a new situation in the country. Although official statistics show the presence of 982,000 registered immigrants with residence permits in the country, as the Minister of Interior has stated, there are currently around 2.5 million foreign immigrants in the country.

The presence of this large number of foreign immigrants has created many legal implications for the country. Immigrants who marry Iranian women, have children, and their children need education and schools, and the new family that needs social support; all of these have legal consequences that neglecting any of them can create many social problems in the country.

However, one of the most important issues in this area was the high number of marriages between Afghan immigrants and Iranian women, and the resulting children from these marriages. According to Article 987 of the Civil Code, “an Iranian woman who marries a foreign national will remain an Iranian citizen unless her husband’s nationality is imposed on her through the marriage contract, according to the laws of the husband’s country.” According to Article 12 of the Afghan Nationality Law (approved in 1349 solar year), Afghan nationality is imposed on women who marry men. This article states that “a foreign national who marries an Afghan national is considered Afghan and a citizen of Afghanistan.” Even the Afghan Nationality Law has taken a step further and stipulates that “if a widowed or divorced woman who is a foreign national marries an Afghan national, she and her children from her previous marriage will be considered Afghan and citizens of Afghanistan.”

Therefore, Iranian women who marry Afghan men are no longer considered Iranian according to Afghan law and are instead considered Afghan. According to the Afghan citizenship principles, even their children are considered Afghan and cannot be Iranian.

In such circumstances, where Iranian girls want to raise their children in Iran and even send them to school in Iran, the problem becomes more apparent than ever. These girls are Afghan and their children are Afghan, and in such conditions, they are deprived of the rights that have been considered for Iranians. Although in recent years, at the request of the leadership, facilities have been provided for Afghan children in Iran, this problem still exists at its root and the citizenship of children born from the marriage of Iranian girls and Afghan men remains unresolved.

Iranian women’s marriages with foreign men fall into two categories: some of them are legal marriages, meaning they obtain a marriage license from the Ministry of Interior and their children can provide documents after the age of 18 and obtain a birth certificate. However, the second group is currently under discussion, as they have married illegally and the majority of these marriages do not have a marriage license. On the other hand, some of these men who have entered the country illegally have been told to leave and obtain a citizenship certificate, most of whom are from Afghanistan. Many of these men, after leaving Iran, have no possibility of returning and their wives are left without a guardian and have no rights, as there is no legal protection for these women and the court cannot support them. This is a major problem. The parliament and representatives need to change their views on citizenship. Unfortunately, in Iranian law, the mother is not recognized for citizenship, as if the child is only born from the father! Children from these

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The council’s plan to solve problems.

The issue of citizenship for children born to Iranian women and Afghan men has become so high that now the Parliament is pursuing a solution with a two-pronged plan. Although the Parliament once attempted to resolve the issue with a one-pronged plan in 85, the problem was not solved to the extent that this time they have come up with a two-pronged plan to address the issue.

The single article of the law determining the citizenship status of individuals whose father is a foreigner was approved by the parliament on the second of Mehr month, 1385 (September 2006). It was stipulated that children born to Iranian women and foreign men who are born in Iran or within one year after the approval of this law in Iran, can apply for Iranian citizenship after reaching the age of 18. These individuals will be accepted as Iranian citizens if they have no criminal or security record and renounce their non-Iranian citizenship. It is also mentioned in this article that the Ministry of Interior will be responsible for verifying the birth of the child in Iran and issuing a marriage license according to Article 1060 of the Civil Code, and the law enforcement agency will issue a residence permit for the mentioned foreign father upon notification from the Ministry of Interior. Children covered by this article are also allowed to reside in Iran before obtaining citizenship.

The problem that this law created for children with citizenship issues was that their concerns and worries regarding livelihood, education, health, and other matters were not addressed and the problem remained unresolved. This led to the issue being brought up again for amendment 8 years later, with a sense of urgency, and placed on the agenda of the parliament, eventually leading to its approval. However, even with all this effort, the bill was rejected in parliament.

Citizenship, human rights, and international conventions.

The principles of human rights aim to demonstrate that having or not having citizenship should not have any impact on an individual’s enjoyment of human rights. Statelessness should not prevent the application of human rights standards to individuals mentioned in the 1954 Convention. This Convention stipulates that member states must grant stateless persons the same rights as their own nationals or nationals of other states residing in their territory in specific matters.

For example, member states must ensure that stateless persons have access to rights such as religion, primary education, access to courts, labor laws, public welfare, and intellectual property, which are enjoyed by domestic citizens. Similarly, member states must guarantee the rights of stateless persons in areas such as the right to housing, the right to form unions and associations, freedom of movement, acquisition and ownership of wages from work, and the right to property.

However, non-citizens who are illegally residing in the territory of one of the member states, only benefit from some rights and protections under the 1954 Convention. In addition to this convention, human rights documents also support the idea that citizenship is not a necessary prerequisite for enjoying human rights. Some human rights scholars also believe that in several human rights documents, citizenship has deliberately been downplayed in order to prevent statelessness from becoming a basis for discrimination. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also obligates states to respect and ensure all recognized rights without discrimination based on sex, race, skin color, language, religion, political or social origin, property, birth, or other status. The Covenant on Civil, Political, Social, and Cultural Rights also includes a similar provision. Therefore, the general rule is that each of the rights listed in the Covenant must be guaranteed without discrimination between citizens and foreigners. Foreigners will benefit from the rights listed in the Covenant according to the principle of non-d

According to the 1954 Convention, a stateless person is someone who is not considered a national by any state under its laws. This is an official definition of statelessness, as it is purely a legal description. Although some have praised the brevity and conciseness of this definition, others believe that the concept of statelessness should encompass more than just this definition. The problem with this definition is that some individuals may be practically considered nationals, but are unable to access their rights and protection. The definition of statelessness should also include practical statelessness. These individuals often have a nationality according to the law, but it is not effective or they are unable to prove or confirm their nationality. Practical statelessness occurs when states neglect the usual benefits of nationality, such as protection and support, for certain individuals.

Citizenship in Iranian laws

Article 976 of the Civil Code determines the criteria for who is considered Iranian and who can acquire Iranian citizenship. According to this article, the following seven groups are considered Iranians: first, all residents of Iran except those with confirmed foreign citizenship; second, individuals with an Iranian father (regardless of whether they were born in Iran or abroad); third, individuals born in Iran with unknown parents; fourth, individuals born in Iran from foreign parents (one of whom was born in Iran); fifth, individuals born in Iran from a foreign father who has resided in Iran for at least one year after turning 18; sixth, any foreign woman who marries an Iranian man; and seventh, any foreign national who acquires Iranian citizenship.

In this legal article, there is no specific provision regarding children who have an Iranian mother and a non-Iranian father. In countries such as Japan, Malaysia, France, and Scandinavian countries where citizenship is transferred from mother to child, in Iran, having an Iranian father is the only criteria for obtaining Iranian citizenship. This article considers a child born to a foreign mother and father, as long as one of the parents is born in Iran, and also children born to a foreign father who are born in Iran, eligible to receive Iranian citizenship, provided that they have resided in Iran for at least one year after turning 18 years old.

Maternal citizenship claim

It seems that there is no solution other than changing the perspective on the issue of bloodline citizenship in Iran. There is no logical or legal reasoning that states a child must solely belong to their father.

Despite the fact that legal marriages between Iranian women and Afghan men are still ongoing, the Ministry of Interior refrains from issuing marriage licenses for these unions. The logic behind this unannounced policy is that marrying Iranian women has become a way for Afghans to stay in Iran; Afghans who, due to various reasons such as lack of prospects for a bright future in Afghanistan, have been subject to the plan of voluntary repatriation since late 2006. In this plan, Afghans without residency documents are arrested and, after a short period of time in one of the camps, are deported at the Iran-Afghanistan border. Employers who hire Afghan workers are also fined 30,000 tomans per day for each worker. The official policy is to not grant any new privileges to Afghans residing in Iran. Prohibiting Iranian women from marrying Afghan men, even if they provide all the necessary documents for obtaining a marriage license but cannot convince the Ministry of

In the meantime, there is a specific solution that must be raised by Iranian civil society and elites, which is the demand for “maternal citizenship” so that mothers whose children have uncertain citizenship can obtain Iranian birth certificates for their children. Women should also have the same rights as men in determining the fate and citizenship of their children.