At the regional level, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on
the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) commits States to ensure women’s equal
rights in nationality matters, including the ability to confer nationality on their children (Article
6). The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Relating to the Specific
Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa enshrines
equal nationality rights for women and men to acquire, change, or retain their nationality, and
to confer nationality on their children (Article 4). In the Americas, the American Convention
on Human Rights (Article 20) protects the right to nationality, and the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights has issued landmark rulings that recognize the importance of gender-equal
nationality laws in preventing statelessness. In Europe, the European Convention on Nationality
obligates States to eliminate gender discrimination in nationality laws, underscoring equal rights
for parents to pass on their nationality (Article 5).
Several regional commitments have also been made to promote gender equality in nationality
laws. In 2015, Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
committed to ensuring that women and men have equal rights to confer nationality on their
children under the Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication
of Statelessness. The States reiterated this commitment in the legally binding Banjul Plan
of Action adopted in 2017. Also in 2017, Member States of the International Conference of
the Great Lakes Region signed a Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness and an
accompanying Plan of Action, which commits those States to ensuring that women and
men have equal rights to acquire, change, and retain their nationality and to confer their
nationality on their children and spouses. In 2018, Member States of the Economic and
Monetary Community of Central Africa endorsed the N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of
Statelessness in Central Africa, under which they commit to ensuring equal nationality rights for
women and men to acquire, change, retain, and transmit their nationality. In 2023, the League
of Arab States (LAS) adopted the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, which calls
for member states to strengthen women’s right to confer their nationality and to lift reservations
to CEDAW related to this right. The Declaration was formally launched by LAS in July 2024.
At the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness, convened by UNHCR at the mid-point of
the #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness, Eswatini pledged to resolve issues of gender
discrimination in the conferral of nationality on children before the end of the #IBelong
Campaign in 2024. The necessary steps towards Constitutional reform are underway, with
UNHCR supporting the Government to deliver on its pledge.
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