Concluding Observations Committee on the Rights of the Child CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 para
44
Full recommendation:
The Committee urges the State party to take measures to ensure the birth registration of all
children, regardless of their parents’ legal status and/or origin. The Committee urges the State
party, in doing so, to ensure that children of registered refugees and unregistered foreigners are
provided with birth certificates without any conditions.
Assessment using Impact Iran indicators1
The Iranian government passed a new law in 2020 that would allow for the granting of
citizenship to children born of an Iranian mother and a foreign father.2 The law, aptly named
“Granting Citizenship to Children Resulting from Marriage Between Iranian Women and NonIranian Men” was finally sent for implementation to the relevant agencies by the Vice-President
of Iran, Es’haq Jahangiri, on June 3rd, 2020. Until this date, Article 976 of the Iranian Civil Code
of 2015 mandated that only children born of Iranian fathers would be granted citizenship. The
new law was introduced in 2015 in Parliament, yet it was sent back to this body of government
twice for amendment before it was approved by the Guardian Council on October 2nd, 2019.3
There aren’t any statistical figures to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new law4 , since it has
only recently been put into circulation. Regardless, it is expected to contribute to granting
citizenship to around 500,000 children (mostly children of Afghan refugees and Iranian women)
who had, until now, been deprived of a legal avenue for obtaining an Iranian birth certificate.
Recommendation Status:
This recommendation has been PARTIALLY implemented.
1
CRC.8.1.S.1;
CRC.8.1.O.2
2
Radio Farda: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/children-with-iranian-mothers-foreign-fathers-to-receive-citizenship-/30652718.html
3
ISNA
4
Ibid.
1