The Impact of Gender Discrimination on Statelessness been debated in the literature. According to discussions facilitated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2010 known as the Prato conclusions, ‘de facto stateless persons are persons outside the country of their nationality who are unable or, for valid reasons, are unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country’.19 Ultimately, van Waas and de Chickera contend, this distinction around what de facto statelessness entails is less relevant now, given that the UNHCR has endorsed a broader understanding of what statelessness entails, and in light of modern human rights legal protections.20 The 2014 UNHCR Handbook on the Protection of Stateless Persons provides very detailed guidance clarifying how the 1954 Convention definition of a stateless person should be interpreted, considering not only the relevant law of a state, but how it is implemented in practice, recognising that states may not follow, or even ignore, laws in practice.21 This broader interpretation of the definition of a stateless person recognises that regardless of a state’s nationality laws, persons can be rendered stateless in practice and in fact, even if not in law. This approach arguably reflects a more substantive interpretation of what nationality is and what it entails in practice, especially from a gendered perspective, given the many compounded risks of statelessness (direct and indirect) that women tend to face, as is discussed in the following sections. 18 (b) Direct gender discrimination in nationality laws Gender discriminatory nationality laws are a leading cause of statelessness globally.22 Much of the advocacy work and literature around gender and statelessness has focused on gender-discriminatory nationality laws and the significant impacts they have on risks of de jure statelessness.23 For example, the UNHCR Global Action Plan to End Statelessness includes a goal (Action 3) to remove gender discrimination from nationality laws by 2024, and there has been notable progress on this at the global level.24 Such laws are based on the concept of ‘dependent nationality’, which is strongly rooted in patriarchal ideas about the dominance of the male as ‘head of the family’ through which familial nationality should flow.25 During the colonial era, nationality laws of colonial powers, including the United Kingdom and France, enshrined dependent nationality along the male line, causing it to be replicated in domestic laws Laura van Waas & Amal de Chickera, ‘Unpacking statelessness’ in Tendayi Bloom Katherine Tonkiss & Phillip Cole (eds) Understanding Statelessness (2017). 19 UNHCR ‘Expert meeting – The concept of stateless persons under international law (Prato Conclusions)’ Section II (2010), available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ca1ae002.html, accessed on 12 November 2022. 20 Van Waas & de Chickera op cit note 18. 21 UNHCR ‘Expert meeting – The concept of stateless persons under international law (Prato Conclusions)’ Section II (2010), available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ca1ae002.html, accessed on 12 November 2022. 22 UNHCR ‘Global Action Plan to end Statelessness: 2014-2024’ at 12, available at www.unhcr.org/protection/statelessness/54621bf49/global-action-plan-end-statelessness-2014-2024.html, accessed on 12 May 2022. 23 See for example, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, available at https://equalnationalityrights.org/, accessed on 12 May 2022; Zahra Albarazi & Laura van Waas, ‘Towards the abolition of gender discrimination in nationality laws’ (2014) 46 Forced Migration Review 49. 24 UNHCR Global Action Plan op cit note 22 at 12. 25 International Law Association ‘Committee on feminism and international law: Final report on women’s equality and nationality in international law’ (London Conference, 2000) at 17, 25. 18 21