BACKGROUND NOTE ON GENDER EQUALITY, NATIONALITY LAWS AND STATELESSNESS 2019 More recently, commitments made at the regional level have been instrumental in promoting change. In February 2015, under the Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication of Statelessness4, and subsequently pursuant to the legally binding Banjul Plan of Action5 adopted in May 2017, ECOWAS Member States committed to ensuring that women and men have equal rights to confer nationality on their children. In October 2017, Member States of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region Member States signed a Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness6 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 December 2018, Member States of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), endorsed the N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of Statelessness in Central Africa7, under which they also commit to ensuring equal nationality rights for women and men to acquire, change, retain and transmit their nationality. In October 2016, a Regional Expert Meeting entitled “Our Children, Our Future: Belonging and Identity”, was convened in partnership with the League of Arab States (LAS), which resulted in the development of a LAS Declaration to strengthen rights to legal identity, including rights to birth registration, nationality and family unity. In October 2017, a Conference for Arab States on Good Practices and Regional Opportunities to Strengthen Women’s Nationality Rights was organized by the LAS and resulted in the adoption of an Outcome Statement8 that promotes gender equality in the acquisition, change, retention or conferral of nationality. These events paved the way for the LAS to adopt a the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity9 in February 2018, which combines the main provisions of the 2016 Arab Declaration and 2017 Outcome Statement. The Ministerial Declaration calls for gender equal nationality legislation rights in all LAS Member States, as well as for all children in those States to enjoy their right to a legal identity. 4 4 Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication of Statelessness, 25 February 2015, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/54f588df4.html 5 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Plan of Action on Eradication of Statelessness, 2017 – 2024, 2017, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5915c88a4.html 6 Declaration of International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Member States on the Eradication of Statelessness, 16 October 2017, CIRGL/CIMR/DEC/15/10/2017, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/59e9cb8c4.html 7 N'Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of Statelessness in Central Africa, 12 December 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5c2f3f8b4.html 8 The First Arab Conference on Good Practices & Regional Opportunities to Strengthen Women's Nationality Rights League of Arab States Secretariat General, 1-2 October 2017 – Outcome Statement, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5a256c4a4.html 9 League of Arab States, Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, 28 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html UNHCR | 8 March 2019