ACQUISITION OF NATIONALITY THROUGH PARENTAGE (JUS SANGUINIS) Provision A person is a citizen of State X at birth, if either the mother or father of the person is a citizen of State X.26 Comments Nationality through descent, or jus sanguinis, is the principal way in which nationality is granted at birth among LAS member States. Where nationality is conferred by descent, international human rights law requires that women enjoy the same rights as men to pass on their nationality to their children. This standard is found primarily in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), particularly Article 9(2). Though almost all LAS member States are parties to the CEDAW, several retain reservations to Article 9(2), which stipulates that women have the right to pass on their nationality to their children on an equal basis as men.27 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the treaty body responsible for monitoring State compliance with CEDAW, have deemed reservations to Article 9 of the CEDAW to be inconsistent with the object and purpose of the Convention.28 In General Comment No. 32, the Committee explained that children are at a greater risk of failing to obtain a nationality at birth when they do not have access to citizenship by descent from either parent on an equal basis. According to the Committee, laws that grant nationality through paternal descent alone may leave a child without nationality if: (a) The father is stateless; (b) The laws of the father’s country do not permit him to convey nationality in certain circumstances, such as when the child is born abroad; (c) The father is unknown or not married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth; (d) The father has been unable to fulfil administrative steps to confer his nationality or acquire proof of nationality for his children because, for example, he has died, has been forcibly separated from his family or cannot fulfil onerous documentation or other requirements; 15