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 Statelessness,5 and subsequently pursuant to the legally binding Banjul Plan of Action6 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 signed a Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness7 and an accompanying Plan of Action8 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, endorsed the N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of Statelessness in Central Africa,9 under which they also commit to ensuring equal nationality rights for women and men to acquire, change, retain and transmit their nationality. In February 2018, the League of Arab States (LAS) adopted the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity,10 which calls for gender equal nationality legislation in all LAS Member States. Work has now begun to develop an Action Plan to implement the commitments of the Declaration. In 2018, the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons reviewed the text of draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa, which enshrines equal nationality rights for women and men to acquire, change or retain their nationality and with respect to the nationality of their children. The next step will be a legal review of the text of the draft Protocol by the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, prior to adoption of the Protocol by the African Union Assembly and its opening for signature and ratification by African Union Member States. At the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in October 2019, the African Union Commission committed to submit the draft protocol for adoption to the African Union Assembly. 5 Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication of Statelessness, 25 February 2015, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/54f588df4.html 6 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 7 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 8 Action Plan of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) On the Eradication of Statelessness 2017-2019, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a7c16aa4.html 9 N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of Statelessness in Central Africa, 12 December 2018, available at: https:// www.refworld.org/docid/5c2f3f8b4.html 10 League of Arab States, Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identiy, February 2018, available at: https://www. refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html 4 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 1