KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 — The government could start with issuing temporary documentation to enable stateless children in Malaysia to attend national schools as a first step to addressing their legal battle to gain citizenship that has plagued the country for decades.

Farah Nini Dusuki, a commissioner of children with the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), also urged the government to establish a state level special committees on citizenship status for stateless children at the same time.

"In every state, there must be a special committee to solve this problem, because different states will have different issues.

"To administrators, this is a question of formality but for the children, it is a question of differentiating between A, B, C and one, two, three,” she said during the launch of a policy brief on "Realising the Rights of Education for Refugee and Stateless Children in Malaysia” here today.

She said there are matters that need urgent attention pending decisions concerning permanent documentation for the stateless children.

The policy brief suggested that the rest of Malaysia could emulate the Sarawak government, in which the Premier’s Office has issued temporary documentation to refugee and stateless children allowing them to attend school.

In her speech, Farah Nini urged the government for a review and to amend the Education Act of 1996 and the Federal Constitution with regards to the right to education in the country.

Article 12(1) of the Constitution states that "there shall be no discrimination against any citizen”, which the policy brief report noted protects the right of education only for citizens.

The report suggested that the current wording could be a barrier for Malaysia to adopt Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to ensure education be made compulsory and free to all, regardless of citizenship.

Farah Nini called on the government to legally recognise the UNHCR cards issued to refugee children so they could attend public schools.

Today’s policy brief was organised by Suhakam together with the Malaysian chapter of UNHCR, the International Rescue Committee, and the Asia Displacement Solutions Platform which is funded by the European Union Humanitarian Aid.

The discussions were centred on the gaps and challenges to educational access among refugee and stateless children in Malaysia and recommendations to resolve this.

The roundtable discussion was attended by officials from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Immigration Department; the Ministry of Education; the National Security Council; the Ministry of Community Development and People’s Wellbeing of Sabah; and the Department of Social Welfare.

Also present were representatives from local and international advocacy groups for children’s rights.