PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Statelessness has a devastating impact on stateless children globally. Despite having international laws to protect human rights, the rights of stateless children are still at stake. Although the right to education is a fundamental universal right of all children as per Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the ASEAN countries are signatory members of CRC, many stateless children within the region are still denied access to education. They suffer negative impacts due to denial of the right to education with no opportunities for further studies and employment, which eventually lead them to poverty. Thus, in this article, the stateless children’s right to education of selected ASEAN countries is analysed from a legal perspective based on a qualitative doctrinal research method involving the United Nations’ statistical reports, legislations and relevant laws/ policies of the said countries. The findings of this article establish that the inadequacy in national laws and the absence of birth registration denies stateless children to have the right to education in accordance with Article 28 of CRC. Hence, this research provides feasible proposals from a legal perspective to ASEAN countries to uphold the right to education for stateless children.