A joint committee of MPs and peers has called on the UK government to reform British Overseas Territory (BOT) citizenship rules, which it says remain discriminatory. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) found that citizenship rights still depend on whether a person's parents were married or whether it was their mother or father who held citizenship.
The discrimination stems from the British Nationality Act 1981, which addressed some inequalities for British citizenship but not for other types of nationality, including BOT citizenship. This means that in territories such as Anguilla, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar, children of unmarried parents or those claiming citizenship through their mother continue to face unfair treatment.
The JCHR welcomed the government's plan to issue a remedial order to address incompatibilities with the Human Rights Act, but urged the Home Secretary to take urgent steps to eliminate all discrimination in nationality law. The committee stated that it is 'unacceptable' for such discrimination to persist and recommended that the rules be amended for all types of British nationality.
One campaigner told the committee that the matter is 'straightforward' and should have been rectified long ago, adding that children should never be made to feel 'less-than' under the law. Immigration Minister Caroline Noakes acknowledged the issue and said consultation with the Overseas Territories is now on the agenda, with officials to consider amendments in the next draft of the remedial order.
