Progress since the start of the Campaign Since the beginning of the #IBelong Campaign, three countries have reformed their nationality laws to allow mothers to confer their nationality on their children on an equal basis as men: Madagascar and Sierra Leone in 2017, and Liberia in 2022. In 2017, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) partially reformed its law to allow Emirati women married to foreigners to confer their nationality on their children aged six years and above, subject to a number of conditions. This adds to the existing circumstances in which Emirati women can confer their nationality, for example where children are born in the UAE and their fathers are unknown, stateless or where the paternal relationship has not been substantiated. In 2019, Iran partially reformed its law to allow Iranian women to submit an application to confer their nationality on their children wherever they are born. The Government retains discretion as to whether to grant or deny conferral of nationality requested in the application. While the reform does not put mothers and fathers on a fully equal footing with respect to their ability to confer nationality on their children, it represents a significant incremental improvement. In March 2021, the Iranian Ministry of Interior announced that more than 88,000 individuals had applied for naturalization under the amended nationality law provisions. As of September 2022, the National Organisation for Civil Registration had issued more than 14,000 identity booklets (Shenasnamehs) to children of Iranian mothers and non-Iranians fathers under the new law. In a landmark decision in September 2021, the Malaysian High Court held that Article 8 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution, which does not permit gender discrimination in any law, recognised an equal right for men and women to transmit nationality to their children born overseas. However, this decision was overturned at the Court of Appeal stage in August 2022, and a final decision by the Federal Court of Malaysia is pending.11 The newly elected government has since announced that the amendment to the constitution to address gender discrimination remains a priority. In December 2022, the Minister of Home Affairs announced that the Ministry has formed a committee to look at this issue as well as the issue of acquisition of citizenship for children born out of wedlock. At the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness, Liberia and Eswatini pledged to resolve issues of gender discrimination in their respective nationality laws before the end of the #IBelong Campaign in 2024.12 Liberia enacted the necessary amendments to fulfil its pledge in 2022. In Eswatini, the necessary steps towards Constitutional reform are underway. UNHCR is supporting both Governments to deliver on their pledges by 2024. 11 See: Suriani Kembpe & 6 others -v- Government of Malaysia & Ors [2021] 8 CLJ 666; Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed v Ketua Pengarah Pendaftaran & Ors and Anor Appeal [2022] 8 CLJ 697 12 An additional four States made pledges concerning gender discrimination that are outside the scope of this survey. 6 U N H C R > B A C K G R O U N D N O T E O N G E N D E R E Q U A L I T Y, N AT I O N A L I T Y L A W S A N D S TAT E L E S S N E S S 2 0 2 3