Sierra Leone took positive steps in 2006 to reduce gender discrimination in its nationality laws. However, there are still two critical steps to make before we can applaud the State for having gender neutral legislation. According to the Sierra Leone Citizenship Act 1973, as amended by the Sierra Leone Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2006, a Sierra Leonean mother can only confer nationality on her child born abroad if the child would otherwise be stateless. Sierra Leonean fathers confer their nationality to children born abroad at birth. In addition, Section 7 of the Citizenship Act refers only to foreign women married to Sierra Leonean male citizens for the purpose of naturalization, and not to foreign men married to Sierra Leonean female citizens. In its last concluding observations on Sierra Leone issued in June 2008, the Committee “urge[d] the State party to continue and strengthen its efforts to remove all discriminatory laws from its statute books...In particular, the Committee urge[d] the State party to review the Constitution with a view to ensuring that its provisions on non-discrimination are in full compliance with article 2 of the Convention” (CRC/C/SLE/CO/2, ¶26). Article 7 of the CRC states that a child has “the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents … in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.” Article 8 calls for States Parties to “undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations…” While changes brought under the 2006 amendment grant nationality to children of a Sierra Leonean women born in the country, Sierra Leone’s law does still not fulfill the requirements of Articles 7 and 8 and should be amended without delay, including by allowing Sierra Leonean women the same right to pass their nationality to their children as that accorded Sierra Leonean men. In addition, Sierra Leonean women’s inability to confer nationality on their foreign spouses threatens a child’s right to know and be cared for by his or her parents, in violation of Article 7 of the CRC. For example, when foreign men are denied access to their spouses’ nationality, they may be forced to live away from their children due to challenges in acquiring residency permits and obstacles to employment. Sex discrimination in nationality laws can result in significant violations of children’s rights, as well as the rights of women and their foreign spouses, including: statelessness; lack of access to public education, healthcare and other services; increased risk of gender-based violence; impeded family reunification; unemployment; social alienation and psychological damage.5 This alienation can result in future security threats for a State where a proportion of their population feels indefinitely marginalized. We therefore respectfully request the Committee explore further with the State Party any harmful impacts of its sex discriminatory nationality law, such as on children’s right to healthcare and to education under Articles 24 and 28 respectively, and recommend swift and comprehensive changes to remedy all breaches of the CRC. We welcome the recommendation by Sierra Leone’s last Constitutional Review Commission that, since citizenship is a human (including women’s) right issue, the right to citizenship should be included in the Constitution under Fundamental Human Rights.6 We welcome also the government’s renewed commitment to nationality law reform in its March 2014 report to the CEDAW Committee.7 We also note that in February 2015, Ministers of ECOWAS States, including Sierra Leone, committed through the Abidjan Declaration to ensuring that “men and women have equal rights to acquire, change and retain their nationality and confer nationality 5 Equality Now, Campaign to End Sex Discrimination in Nationality and Citizenship Laws, 2013 (updated May 2014, Feb. 2015), available at http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/NationalityReport_EN.pdf 6 CEDAW/C/SLE/Q/6/Add.1, Question 14, available at: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/SLE/CEDAW_C_SLE_Q_6_Add-1_16168_E.pdf 7 Ibid.