၁၉၈၂ ျမန္မာႏိူင္ငံသား ဥပေဒ (The 1982 Burmese Nationality Law (Myanmar Version),The Burma Citizenship Law of 1982

၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒ

လူဝင္မႈႀကီးႀကပ္ေရးႏွင့္ ျပည္သူ႔အင္အားဝန္ႀကီးဌာနဆိုင္ရာ အက္ဥပေဒႏွင့္ နည္းဥပေဒမ်ား

အမွတ္စဥ္(၁၅) ။ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒ။

ျမန္မာလူမ်ိဳးတိုင္း ေလ့လာထားသင့္ပါတယ္..

၁၉၈၂ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒ၏ အေရးပါမႈ

ႏိုင္ငံသား ျပႆနာမ်ားကို ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒျဖင့္ ထိေရာက္စြာ စိစစ္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးႏိုင္ရန္ အစိုးရအား တုိက္တြန္းေၾကာင္း အဆုိတစ္ရပ္ကို ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ေမ ၆ ရက္က က်င္းပသည့္ ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္ အစည္းအေ၀းတြင္ ရခိုင္အမ်ဳိးသား ပါတီမွ ရေသ့ေတာင္ မဲဆႏၵနယ္ ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ ေဒၚခင္ေစာေ၀က တင္သြင္းခဲ့သည္။ ယင္းအဆုိတြင္ “ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသည္ ပထ၀ီ အေနအထားအရ လူဦးေရ ထူထပ္မ်ားျပား ေပါက္ကြဲေနေသာ ႏုိင္ငံမ်ားျဖစ္သည့္ တ႐ုတ္၊ အိႏိၵယ၊ ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ ႏိုင္ငံမ်ားႏွင့္ မိုင္ေပါင္းေထာင္ခ်ီ၍ နယ္နိမိတ္ခ်င္း ထိစပ္ေနေသာ ႏိုင္ငံတစ္ခု ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ အဆုိပါ နယ္စပ္ တစ္ေလွ်ာက္တြင္ မ်ားစြာေသာ တုိင္းရင္းသားမ်ားမွာ တစ္ဖက္ႏုိင္ငံတြင္လည္း အမ်ဳိးတူ ႏြယ္၀င္မ်ား ရွိေနၾကသျဖင့္ ကူးလူးသြားလာ ဆက္ဆံမႈမ်ား ရွိေနၾကမည္ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ အထူးသျဖင့္ တုိင္းရင္းသားမ်ား မဟုတ္သည့္ ျမန္မာ-ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ ေဒသတြင္ ဘဂၤါလီမ်ား၏ တရားမ၀င္ အေျခခ် ေနထုိင္လာမႈေၾကာင့္ ေဒသတြင္း မတည္မၿငိမ္မႈမ်ား ျဖစ္ေပၚလ်က္ရွိေၾကာင္း အထက္ပါ အေျခအေနမ်ားေၾကာင့္ မိမိတုိ႔ႏုိင္ငံ၏ တရားဥပေဒ စိုးမိုးေရး၊ လံုျခံဳေရး၊ အခ်ဳပ္အျခာ အာဏာ တည္တံ့ေရးတုိ႔အတြက္ ႏိုင္ငံသား စိစစ္ေရး လုပ္ငန္းမွာ အလြန္အေရးႀကီးၿပီး အမ်ဳိးသားေရး အက်ဳိးစီးပြားႏွင့္ ဆုိင္သည့္အတြက္ အခ်ိန္ႏွင့္တစ္ေျပးညီ မျဖစ္မေန ေဆာင္ရြက္ရမည့္ လုပ္ငန္းတစ္ရပ္ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းကို မီးေမာင္းထုိးျပလ်က္ ရွိေၾကာင္း...” စသည္ျဖင့္ ထည့္သြင္း တုိက္တြန္းခဲ့သည္။ ထို႔ျပင္ ယခင္က ရွိခဲ့ေသာ ၁၉၄၈ ခုႏွစ္ ျပည္ေထာင္စု ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံသားျဖစ္မႈ အက္ဥပေဒမွ အားနည္းခ်က္ မ်ားစြာ ရွိေနခဲ့သျဖင့္ ၁၉၇၄ ခုႏွစ္မွစ၍ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒ (မူၾကမ္း) ကို ေရးဆြဲၿပီး အမ်ားျပည္သူထံ အၾကံဥာဏ္ ေတာင္းခံခဲ့ေၾကာင္း၊ ေနာက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒကို ျပ႒ာန္းႏိုင္ခဲ့ၿပီး ၁၉၄၈ ခုႏွစ္ ျပည္ေထာင္စု ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသားျဖစ္မႈ အက္ဥပေဒကို ႐ုပ္သိမ္းခဲ့ေၾကာင္း၊ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒသည္ လက္ရွိအာဏာ သက္၀င္ တည္ရွိေနသည့္ ခိုင္မာေသာ ဥပေဒ တစ္ရပ္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း အဆုိ တင္သြင္းခဲ့သည္။ အဆုိပါ အဆုိအား လႊတ္ေတာ္ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ ေျခာက္ဦးက ေထာက္ခံ ေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့ၾကသည္။

သို႔ေသာ္ အစုိးရသစ္ ရက္ ၁၀၀ စီမံခ်က္တြင္ ဦးစားေပး လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ အျဖစ္ စီစဥ္ထားေသာေၾကာင့္ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒအရ ႏုိင္ငံသား ျပႆနာမ်ားကို ႏုိင္ငံတစ္၀န္း၌ ယင္းဥပေဒႏွင့္အညီ ထိေရာက္စြာ စိစစ္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးရန္ တုိက္တြန္းေၾကာင္း အဆုိအား လႊတ္ေတာ္၌ အတည္ျပဳခဲ့ျခင္း မရွိဘဲ မွတ္တမ္း တင္ျခင္းသာ ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့သည္။

ထုိ႔ျပင္ အလုပ္သမား၊ လူ၀င္မႈ ႀကီးၾကပ္ေရးႏွင့္ ျပည္သူ႔အင္အား ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ျပည္ေထာင္စု ၀န္ႀကီး ဦးသိန္းေဆြက “... တုိင္းေဒသႀကီးနဲ႔ ျပည္နယ္အစိုးရ အဖဲြ႕မ်ားနဲ႔ ညိႇႏိႈင္းၿပီးေတာ့မွ တုိင္းေဒသႀကီး၊ ျပည္နယ္ခ႐ိုင္ ၿမိဳ႕နယ္နဲ႔ ရပ္ကြက္ ေက်းရြာအုပ္စု စိစစ္ေရး ေကာ္မတီမ်ားကိုလည္း အဆင့္ဆင့္ ဖြဲ႕စည္းၿပီးေတာ့မွ ေဆာင္ရြက္သြားမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ေဆာင္ရြက္တဲ့ ေနရာမွာလည္း ျပည္သူကို ဗဟိုျပဳၿပီး ေဆာင္ရြက္မွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ပြင့္လင္း ျမင္သာစြာ ေဆာင္ရြက္မွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ဥပေဒနဲ႔အညီ စနစ္တက် နယ္စပ္ ေဒသမ်ား အပါအ၀င္ ႏုိင္ငံတစ္၀န္းလံုးမွာ ေဆာင္ရြက္သြားမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္...” ဟူ၍ ထည့္သြင္း ေျပာၾကားထားသည္။

ယခုအခါတြင္ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒႏွင့္ အညီ ႏုိင္ငံသား စိစစ္ျခင္း လုပ္ငန္းမ်ား စတင္ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနၿပီ ျဖစ္သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ ယင္းသို႔ လုပ္ေဆာင္မႈမ်ားႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္ေသာ ေ၀ဖန္မႈမ်ား၊ ဥပေဒကို ကုိင္တြယ္ အသံုးျပဳ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနသူ အခ်ဳိ႕၏ လုပ္ေဆာင္မႈမ်ားႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ ယခင္အစိုးရ လက္ထက္မ်ားက ေပၚေပါက္ခဲ့ဖူးေသာ ဥပေဒကို လိုသလို အသံုးျပဳ လုပ္ေဆာင္ခဲ့ျခင္းမ်ားႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ ေ၀ဖန္မႈမ်ား ရွိေနသည္။

ထုိ႔ျပင္ ရွမ္းျပည္နယ္ ေျမာက္ပိုင္း တာမိုးညဲေဒသတြင္ ေနထိုင္သူ အခ်ဳိ႕အား သက္ဆုိင္ရာက မုန္း၀န္း (တ႐ုတ္) လူမ်ဳိးမွ မုန္း၀န္း (ဗမာ) တုိင္းရင္းသား လူမ်ဳိးတစ္မ်ဳိး အျဖစ္ အတည္ျပဳေပးျခင္းႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ ေမးျမန္းမႈမ်ား ေ၀ဖန္မႈမ်ား ထြက္ေပၚခဲ့သည္။ ယင္းကိစၥ အေပၚ အလုပ္သမား၊ လူ၀င္မႈ ႀကီးၾကပ္ေရးႏွင့္ ျပည္သူ႔အင္အား ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ျပည္ေထာင္စု ၀န္ႀကီး ဦးသိန္းေဆြက မုန္း၀န္းလူမ်ဳိး အမည္ အမ်ဳိးမ်ဳိး ကြဲျပားေနေသာေၾကာင့္ တစ္ေျပးညီ ျဖစ္ေစရန္ ကာယကံရွင္ တစ္ဦးခ်င္းက ဆႏၵျပဳလာပါက မုန္း၀န္း (ဗမာ) ဟု ေရးသြင္းေပးရန္ ခြင့္ျပဳထားေၾကာင္း ေျဖၾကားထားၿပီး၊ တုိင္းရင္းသား လူမ်ဳိးတစ္မ်ဳိး အျဖစ္ တရား၀င္ အတည္ျပဳေပးျခင္း မရွိဟု ေျပာၾကားထားသည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ ယင္းကဲ့သို႔ ႏုိင္ငံသား စိစစ္ေရး ကတ္ျပားမ်ားတြင္ ေရးသြင္းေစျခင္းသည္ ေနာင္တစ္ခ်ိန္တြင္ တုိင္းရင္းသား အသိအမွတ္ျပဳမႈႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ ႐ႈပ္ေထြးမႈမ်ား ရွိလာႏုိင္သည္ကို သတိျပဳသင့္ပါသည္။ ထို႔ျပင္ ယင္းသို႔ ေရးသြင္း ခြင့္ျပဳသူမ်ား အေနျဖင့္ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒအရ ႏိုင္ငံသား ျဖစ္ထုိက္ျခင္း ရွိ မရွိ လိုအပ္ေသာ ျပန္လည္ စစ္ေဆးမႈမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္သင့္ပါသည္။

သို႔ပါ၍ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္ မလိုလားအပ္ေသာ ႏုိင္ငံသား ျပႆနာမ်ား ႐ႈပ္ေထြးမႈမ်ား မျဖစ္ေပၚေစေရး အတြက္ အခိုင္အမာ ျပ႒ာန္းထားၿပီးသား ျဖစ္ေသာ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒျဖင့္ အတိအက် လိုက္နာ လုပ္ေဆာင္ႏုိင္ရန္ အေရးႀကီးပါသည္။ ဥပေဒ အတုိင္း ထိထိေရာက္ေရာက္ မွန္မွန္ကန္ကန္ စိစစ္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ႏုိင္ေရးမွာ အေရးပါမည္ျဖစ္ၿပီး ထိုသုိ႔ လုပ္ေဆာင္ရာတြင္ အဂတိ လိုက္စားမႈျဖင့္ ဥပေဒကို လိုရာဆြဲ၍ အလြဲသံုးမႈမ်ား မျဖစ္ေပၚေစေရးမွာ အလုပ္သမား၊ လူ၀င္မႈ ႀကီးၾကပ္ေရးႏွင့္ ျပည္သူ႔ အင္အား၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ျပည္ေထာင္စု ၀န္ႀကီးႏွင့္ သက္ဆုိင္ရာ တာ၀န္ရွိသူ အသီးသီးတြင္ တာ၀န္ရွိမည္ ျဖစ္ပါေၾကာင္း The Daily Eleven သတင္းစာက ေရးသားအပ္ပါသည္။

Ref:http://news-eleven.com/editorials/21178

              The Burma Citizenship Act

The Burma Citizenship Act of 1982 granted citizenship to individuals residing in Burma who could trace their family residency to prior to 1823, that is, the year of the first British military campaign on Myanmar and with it, a wave of immigration from India and China. The law was deeply problematic, as for many families of various ethnic groups, transnational ties were common and there was rarely documentation to prove whether a person had deep roots in Myanmar.

The law was part of a series of actions taken by the nationalist Burmese government meant to shore up Burmese ethnic power. The law created three categories of citizenship: the first category applied to ethnic Burmans and members of the Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Arakan Buddhists, Shan, and any other ethnic group present in Myanmar prior to 1823 (though they did not include Rohingya Muslims, rendering them stateless), granted them full citizenship.

The second category granted partial “associate” citizenship to the children of mixed marriages where one parents fell into the first category, as well as to individuals who had lived in Myanmar for five consecutive years, or to individuals who lived in Myanmar for eight out of the ten years prior to independence. Associate citizens could earn an income, but could not serve in political office. The third category applied to the offspring of immigrants who arrived in Myanmar during the period of British colonial rule.

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၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္ ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံသား ဥပေဒ ( 1982 Burmese Nationality Law Myanmar Version) by Than Han on Scribd

  

Burma Citizenship Law of 1982

Burma Citizenship Law promulgated.The Chairman of the Council of State on 15, October promulgated the Burma Citizenship Law which was approved and passed by the third session of the Third Pyithu Hluttaw.

The following is the English translation of the Burma Citizenship Law..

Burma Citizenship Law

(Pyithu Hluttaw Law No. 4 of 1982)

The Pyithu Hluttaw enacts the following Law: 

CONTENTS

Chapter I - Title and Definition

Chapter II - Citizenship

Chapter III - Associate Citizenship

Chapter IV - Naturalized Citizenship

Chapter V - Decision as to Citizenship, Associate Citizenship or Naturalized Citizenship

Chapter VI - Central Body

Chapter VII - Appeals

Chapter VIII - Miscellaneous Chapter I 

Chapter 1

Title and Definition

1. This Law shall be called the Burma citizenship Law.

2. The expressions contained in this Law shall have the following meanings:

(a) "State" means the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma;

(b) "Citizen" means a Burma citizen;

(c) "Associate Citizen" means an associate citizen prescribed by this Law;

(d) "Naturalized Citizen" means a prescribed by this Law;

(e) "Foreigner" means a person who is not a citizen or an associate citizen or a naturalized citizen;

(f) "Certificate of citizenship" means a certificate of citizenship granted under the Union Citizenship (Election) Act, 1948 or the Union Citizenship Act, 1948 or this Law;

(g) "Certificate of Associate Citizenship" means a certificate of associate citizenship granted under this Law;

(h) "Certificate of Naturalized Citizenship" means a certificate of naturalized citizenship granted under this Law;

(i) "Central Body established under this Law.

Chapter II 

Citizenship

3.  Nationals such as the Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine or Shan and ethnic groups as have settled in any of the territories included within the State as their permanent home from a period anterior to 1185 B.E., 1823 A.D. are Burma citizens.

4. The Council of State may decide whether any ethnic group is national or not.

5.  Every national and every person born of parents, both of whom are nationals are citizens by birth.

6. A person who is already a citizen on the date this Law cones into force is a citizen. Action, however shall be taken under section 18 for infringement of the provision of that section.

7. The following persons born in or outside the State are also citizens:

(a) persons born of parents, both of whom are citizens;

(b) persons born of parents, one of whom is a citizen and the other an associate citizen;

(c) persons born of parents, one of whom and the other a naturalized citizen;

(d) persons born of parents one of whom is

(i) a citizen; or

(ii) an associate citizen; or

(iii) a naturalized citizen;

and the other is born of parents, both of whom are associate citizens;

(e) persons born of parents, one of whom is

(i) a citizen; or

(ii) an associate citizen; or

(iii) a naturalized citizen;

and the other is born of parents, both of whom are naturalized citizens;

(f) persons born of parents one of whom is

(i) a citizen; or

(ii) an associate citizen; or

(iii) a naturalized citizen;

and the other is born of parents, one of whom is an associate citizen and the other a naturalized citizen.

8. (a) The Council of State may, in the interest of the State confer on any person citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship.

    (b) The Council of State may, in the interest of the State revoke the citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship of any person except a citizen by birth.

9. A person born in the State shall have his birth registered either by the parent or guardian in the prescribed manner, within year from the date he completes the age of ten years, at the organizations prescribed by the ministry of Home Affairs

Proviso. If registration is not possible within one year from the date he completes the age of ten years, application may be made by the parent or guardian, furnishing sufficient reasons to the organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

10 A person born outside the State shall have his birth registered either by the parent or guardian in the proscribed manner within one year from the date of birth at the Burmese Embassy or Consulate or organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Proviso. If registration is not possible within one year from the date of birth, application may be made by the parent or guardian, furnishing sufficient reasons to the Central Body through the Burmese Embassy or Consulate or organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

11. (a) A parent or guardian who fails to comply with section 9 or section 10 shall be liable to pay a penalty of kyats fifty per year to the Burmese Embassy or Consulate or an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

      (b) A parent or guardian who fails for five years in succession to comply with section 9 or section 10 shall be liable to a penalty of kyats one thousand.

12. A citizen shall

(a) respect and abide by the laws of the State;

(b)discharge the duties prescribed by the laws of the State

(c)be entitled to enjoy the rights prescribed by the laws of the State.

13. A citizen shall not as well acquire the citizenship of another country.

14. A citizen shall have no right to divest himself of his citizenship during any war in which the State is engaged.

15.  (a) A citizen shall not automatically lose his citizenship merely by marriage to a foreigner.

      (b) A foreigner shall not automatically acquire citizenship merely by marriage to a citizen.

16. A citizen who leaves the State permanently, or who acquires the citizenship of or registers himself as a citizen of another country, or who takes out a passport or a similar certificate of another country ceases to be a citizen.

17. The citizenship of a citizen by birth shall in no case be revoked except in the case of cessation of citizenship due to infringement of the provision of section 16.

18. A citizen who has acquired citizenship by making a false representation or by concealment shall have his citizenship revoked, and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of ton years and to a fine of kyats fifty thousand.

19. A citizen who has committed abetment of obtaining, in a fraudulent manner, a certificate of citizenship or a certificate of associate citizenship or a certificate of naturalized citizenship for another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of seven years and to a fine of kyats ten thousand.

20. (a) The certificate of citizenship of a person whose citizenship has ceased or has been revoked shall be cancelled. A person holding such a cancelled certificate shall surrender it in the manner prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

      (b) Failure to surrender a cancelled certificate of citizenship or continued use of it or transfer of it in a fraudulent manner to another person shall entail imprisonment for a term of ten years and a fine of kyats twenty thousand.

     (c) Whoever holds and uses a cancelled certificate of citizenship or the certificate of a deceased citizen shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years and to a fine of kyats twenty thousand.

21.  Whoever forges a certificate of citizenship or abets such act shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of fifteen years to a fine of kyats fifty thousand.

22. A person whose citizenship has ceased or has been revoked shall have no right to apply again for citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship.

Chapter III 

Associate Citizenship

23. Applicants for citizenship under the Union Citizenship Act, 1948, conforming to the stipulations and qualifications may be determined as associate citizens by the Central Body.

24. A person who has been determined is an associate citizen by the Central Body shall appear in person before an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and shall make an affirmation in writing that he owes allegiance to the State, that, he will respect and abide by the laws of the State and that he is aware of the prescribed duties and rights.

25. The Central Body may include in the certificate of associate citizenship the names of children mentioned in the application. The child whose name is so included is an associate citizen.

26. The child whose name is included under section 25, and who has completed the age of eighteen years shall make an affirmation in accordance with section 24, along with the parents.

27. (a) The child whose name is included under section 25 and who has not completed the age of eighteen years shall, within one year from the date he completes the age of eighteen years appear in person before an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and make an affirmation in accordance with section 24.

      (b) A person who fails to comply with sub-section (a) shall be liable to pay a penalty of kyats fifty per year to an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

28. If affirmation is not possible within one year, application may be made, furnishing sufficient reasons to the Central Body, through the organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. If there are no sufficient reasons after the date on which he completes the age of twenty-two years, he shall lose his associate citizenship.

29. (a) When both the parents, of the children included in their certificate of associate of associate citizenship, lose their associate citizenship, the child who has not completed the age of eighteen years, and the child who has completed the age of eighteen years, but has not made an affirmation cease to be associate citizens.

     (b) Where one of the parents, of the children included in the certificate hold by her or him, is an associate citizen and the other a foreigner, and if the mother or father who is an associate citizen loses her or his associate citizenship the child who has not completed the age of eighteen years, and the child who has completed the age of eighteen years, but has not made an affirmation cease to be associate citizens.

30. An associate citizen shall

(a) respect and abide by the laws of the State;

(b) discharge the duties prescribed by the laws of the State;

(c) be entitled to enjoy the rights of a citizen under the laws of the State, with the exception of the rights stipulated from time to time by, the Council of State.

31. An associate citizen shall not as well acquire the citizenship of another country.

32. An associate citizen shall have no right to divest himself of his associate citizenship during any war in which the State is engaged.

 33. An associate citizen shall not automatically acquire citizenship merely by marriage to a citizen.

34. An associate citizen who leaves the State permanently or, who acquires the citizenship of or registers himself as a citizen of another country, or who takes out a passport or a similar certificate of another country ceases to be an associate citizen.

35. The Central Body may revoke the associate citizenship of a person if he infringes any of the following provisions:

(a) trading or communicating with enemy countries or with countries assisting the enemy country, or with citizens or organizations of such countries during a war in which the State is engaged or abetting such an act;

(b) trading or communicating with an organization or with a member of such organization which is hostile to the State, or abetting such an act;

(c) committing an act likely to endanger the sovereignty and security of the State or public peace and tranquillity or giving rise to the reasonable belief that he is about to commit such an act;

(d) showing disaffection or disloyalty to the State by any act or speech or otherwise;

(e) giving information relating to a state secret to any person, or to any organization, or to any other country or countries,, or abetting such an act;

(f) committing an offence involving moral turpitude for which he has been sentenced to imprisonment for a minimum term of one year or to a minimum fine of kyats one thousand.

36. An associate citizen who has acquired such citizenship by making a false representation or by concealment shall have his associate citizenship revoked, and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years and to a fine of kyats fifty thousand.

37. An associate citizen who has committed abetment of obtaining in a fraudulent manners a certificate of citizenship or a certificate of associate citizenship or a certificate of naturalized citizenship for another person shall have his associate citizenship revoked; and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of seven years and to a fine of kyats ton thousand.

38. An associate citizen who has personal knowledge of an offence committed by any person under section 36 or section 37, or as an accomplice who has committed such an act, discloses or admits the offence before organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs within one year from the date this Law comes into force, or within one year from the date of commission of the offence shall be exempted from the penal provisions relating to such offence.

39. (a) The certificate of associate citizenship of a person whose associate citizenship has ceased or has been revoked shall be cancelled. A person holding such a cancelled certificate shall surrender it in the manner prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

     (b) Failure to surrender a cancelled certificate of associate citizenship or continued use of it or transfer of it in a fraudulent manner to another person shall entail imprisonment for a term of ten years and a fine of kyats twenty thousand.

      (c) Whoever holds and uses a cancelled certificate of associate citizenship or the certificate of a deceased associate citizen shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years and to a fine of kyats twenty thousand.

40. Whoever forges a certificate of associate citizenship or abets such act shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of fifteen years and to a fine of kyats fifty thousand.

41. A person whose associate citizenship has ceased or has been revoked shall have no right to apply again for associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship.

Chapter IV  

Naturalized Citizenship

 42. Persons who have entered and resided in the State anterior to 4th January, 1948, and their offsprings born Within the State may, if they have not yet applied under the union Citizenship Act, 1948, apply for naturalized citizenship to the Central Body, furnishing conclusive evidence.

43. The following persons born in or outside the State from the date this Law comes into force may also apply for naturalized citizenship:

(a) persons born of Parents one of whom is a citizen and the other a foreigner;

(b) persons barn of parents, one of whom is an associate citizen and the other a naturalized citizen;

(c) persons born of parents one of whom is an associate citizen and the other a foreigner;

(d) persons born of parents, both of whom are naturalized citizens;

(e) persons born of parents, one of whom is a naturalized citizen and the other a foreigner.

44. An applicant for naturalized citizenship shall have the following qualifications:

(a) be a person who conforms to the provisions of section 42 or section 43;

(b) have completed the age of eighteen years;

(c) be able to speak well one of the national languages;

(d) be of good character;

(e) be of sound mind.

45. A person married to a citizen or to an associate citizen or to a naturalized citizen, who is holding a Foreigner's Registration Certificate anterior to the date this Law comes into force shall have the following qualifications to apply for naturalized citizenship:

(a) have completed the age of eighteen years;

(b) be of good character;

(c) be of sound mind;

(d) be the only husband or wife;

(e) have resided continuously in the State for at least three years is the lawful wife or husband.

46.  (a) A person who has been determined as a naturalized citizen by the Central Body shall appear in person before an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and shall make an affirmation in writing that he owes allegiance to the State, that he will respect and abide by the laws of the State and that he is aware of the prescribed duties and rights.

      (b) A person who has been determined as a naturalized citizen by the Central Body and holding a Foreigner's Registration Certificate shall appear in person before an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and shall make an affirmation in writing that he renounces his foreign citizenship, that he owes allegiance to the State, that ha will respect and abide by the laws of the State and that he is aware of the prescribed duties and rights.

47. The Central Body may include in the certificate of naturalized citizenship the name of a child mentioned in the application. The child whose name is so included is a naturalized citizen.

48. The child whose name is included under section 47, and who has completed the age of eighteen years shall make an affirmation in accordance with sub-section (a) of section 46, along with the parents.

49. (a) The child whose name is included under section 47, and who has not completed the age of eighteen years shall, with in one year from the date on which he completes the age of eighteen years appear in person before an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and make an affirmation in accordance with sub-section (a) of section 46.

     (b) A person who fails to comply with sub-section (a) shall be liable to pay a penalty of kyats fifty per year to an organization prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

50. If affirmation is not possible within one year, application may be made, furnishing sufficient reasons to the Central Body, through the organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. If there are no sufficient reasons after the date on which he completes the age of twenty-two years, he shall lose his naturalized citizenship.

51. (a) When both the parents, of the children included in their certificate of naturalized citizenship, lose their naturalized citizenship the child who has not completed the age of eighteen years, and the child who has completed the age of eighteen years, but has not made an affirmation cease to be naturalized citizens.

      (b) Where one of the parents of the children included in the certificate held by her or him, is a citizen and the other a foreigner, and if the mother or father who is a citizen loses her or his citizenship, the child who has not completed the age of eighteen years and the child who has completed the age of eighteen years, but has not made an affirmation cease to be naturalized citizen.

      (c) There one of the parents, of the children included in the certificate hold by her or him, is an associate citizen and the other a foreigner, and if the mother or father who is associate citizen loses her or his associate citizenship, the child who has not completed the age of eighteen years, and the child who has completed the age of eighteen years, but has not made in affirmation cease to be naturalized citizens.

     (d) Where one of the parents, of the children included in the certificate held by her or him, is a naturalized citizen and the other a foreigner, and if the mother or father who is a naturalized citizen loses her or his naturalized citizenship, the child who has not completed the age of eighteen years, and the child who has completed the age of eighteen years, but has not made an affirmation cease to be naturalized citizens.

52. If a person married to a citizen or to an associate citizen or to a naturalized citizen, who is holding a Foreigner's Registration Certificate anterior to the date this Law comes into force applies for naturalized citizenship and the husband or wife of such a person dies or is divorced from such a person before acquiring naturalized citizenship, the application for naturalized citizenship of such a person shall lapse.

53. A naturalized citizen shall

(a) respect and abide by the laws of the State;

(b) discharge the duties prescribed by the laws of the State;

(c) be entitled to enjoy the rights of a citizen under the laws of the State with the exception of the rights stipulated from time to time by the Council of State.

54. A naturalized citizen shall not as well acquire the citizenship of another country.

55. A naturalized citizen shall have no right to divest himself of his naturalized citizenship during any war in which the State is engaged.

56. A naturalized citizen shall not Automatically acquire citizenship or associate citizenship merely by marriage to a citizen or to an associate citizen.

57. A naturalized citizen who leaves the State permanently, or who acquires the citizenship of or registers himself as a citizen of another country, or who takes out a passport or a similar certificate of another country ceases to be a naturalized citizen.

58. The Central Body may revoke the naturalized citizenship of a person if he infringes any of the following provisions:

(a) trading or communicating with enemy countries Or with countries assisting the enemy country, or with citizens or organizations of such countries during a war in which the State is engaged, or abetting such an act;

(b) trading or communicating with an organization or with a member of such organization which is hostile to the State, or abetting such an act;

(c) committing an act likely to endanger the sovereignty and security of the State or Public peace and tranquillity or giving rise to the reasonable belief that he is about to commit such an act;

(d) showing disaffection or disloyalty to the State by any act or speech or otherwise;

(e) giving information relating to a State secret to any person, or to any organization, or to any other country or countries, or abetting such an act;

(f) committing an offence involving moral turpitude for which he has been sentenced to imprisonment for a minimum term of one year or to a minimum fine of kyats one thousand.

59. A naturalized citizen who has acquired such citizenship by making a false representation or by concealment shall have his naturalized citizenship revoked, and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years and to a fine of kyats fifty thousand.

60. A naturalized citizen who has committed abetment of obtaining in a fraudulent manner, a certificate of citizenship or a certificate of associate citizenship or a certificate of naturalized citizenship for another person shall have his naturalized citizenship revoked, and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of seven years and to a fine of kyats ten thousand.

61.  A naturalized citizen who has personal knowledge of an offence committed by any person under section 59 or section 60, or as an accomplice who has committed such an act, discloses or admits the offence before organizations prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs within one year from the date this Law comes into force, or within one year from the date of commission of the offence shall be exempted from the penal provisions relating to such offence.

62. (a) The certificate of naturalized citizenship of a person, whose naturalized citizenship has ceased or has been revoked, shall be cancelled. A person holding such a cancelled certificate shall surrender it in the manner prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

      (b) Failure to surrender a cancelled certificate of naturalized citizenship or continued use of it or transfer of it, in a fraudulent manner, to another person shall entail imprisonment for a term of ten years and a fine of kyats twenty thousand.

      (c) Whoever holds and uses a cancelled certificate of naturalized citizenship or the certificate of a deceased naturalilzed citizen shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years and to a fine of kyats twenty thousand.

63. Whoever forges a certificate of naturalized citizenship or abets such act shall be liable to imprisoment for a term of fifteen years and to a fine of kyats fifty thousand.

64. A person whose naturalized citizenship has ceased or has been revoked shall have no right to apply again for naturalized citizenship.

Chapter V  

Decision as to Citizenship, Associate Citizenship or Naturalized Citizenship

65. Any person may apply to the Central Body when it is necessary for a decision as to his citizenship, associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship.

66. The Central Body shall

(a) permit the applicant the submission of application with supporting evidence;

(b) decide in accordance with law;

(c) inform its decision to the applicant.

Chapter VI 

Central Body

67. The Council of Ministers shall form the Central Body as follows:

(a) Minister Chairman Ministry of Home Affairs

(b) Minister Member Ministry of Defence

(c) Minister Member Ministry of Foreign Affairs

68. The Central Body has the authority:

(a) to decide if a person is a citizen, or an associate citizen or a naturalized citizen;

(b) to decide upon an application for associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship;

(c) to terminate citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship;

(d) to revoke citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship;

(e) to decide upon an application regarding failure as to registration or affirmation.

69. The Central Body shall give the right of defence to a person against whom action is taken.

Chapter VII 

Appeals

70. (a) A person dissatisfied with the decision of the Central Body may appeal to the Council of Ministers in accordance with the procedure laid down.

      (b) The decision of the Council of Ministers is final.

71. Organizations conferred with authority under this Law shall give no reasons in matters carried out under this Law. 

Chapter VIII  

Miscellaneous

72. Except under any of the provisions of this Law, no foreigner shall have the right to apply for naturalized citizenship from the date this Law comes into force.

73. A foreigner who is adopted by a citizen or by an associate citizen or by a naturalized citizen shall not acquire citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship.

74. Except on penal matters, all matters relating to this Law shall be decided by the only organizations which are conferred with authority to do so.

75. The Council of Ministers, shall, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Law, lay down necessary procedures with the approval of the Council of State.

76. The following Acts are repealed by this Law:

(a) The Union Citizenship (Election) Act, 1948;

(b) The Union Citizenship Act, 1

[This text is derived from/checked against the version published in the official "Working People's Daily" of 16 October 1982 and the version on the UNHCR website.]

The Burma Citizenship Act 1982 by Than Han on Scribd