STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY Gaps in nationality laws contributing to statelessness  Gender discrimination Where women cannot transmit their nationality to their children, those who have children with a father of another nationality (or who is stateless or of unknown nationality); who have children out of wedlock, or with a father who abandons a child or who dies without leaving nationality documentation or obtaining nationality documents for his children, face a real risk that their children will be stateless, especially if they do not live in the country of the father.  Racial and ethnic discrimination Racial and ethnic discrimination in the law leaves those who are not perceived to be of the “right” racial or ethnic group at risk of statelessness, especially where combined with discrimination on the basis of sex and where the father is from the excluded group.  Weak rights attached to birth in the country Countries which provide very limited rights based on birth in the country – in particular, those which do not provide protections for children of unknown parents, or for children whose parents cannot transmit their nationality to their children, or who are stateless or of unknown nationality – leave many children at risk of statelessness. In general, states which provide no access to nationality even if successive generations are born in the country, and no rights based on birth in the country and residence during childhood (enabling automatic or optional access to nationality at majority), tend to have large populations of stateless persons.  Dual nationality rules hard to interpret Where dual nationality is prohibited or rules are complex and inconsistently applied, some can be left at risk of statelessness, especially those who under the law might have the right to two nationalities from birth, but have documents from neither country.  Provisions on state successions have created statelessness Many countries face continuing problems related to poor management of nationality in the transitional provisions of the laws adopted at independence.  Non-existent systems for the protection of stateless persons No Partner State of the EAC has a legal framework in place to identify and provide an interim protective status for stateless migrants and facilitate their acquisition of a nationality. 24 UNHCR / September 2018