The Impact of Gender Discrimination on Statelessness its nationality laws, Eswatini has pledged to reform its nationality laws to eliminate gender discrimination by 2024.36 In addition, nationality laws that discriminate against a group of people, on the basis of race, ethnicity, or religion, can directly cause statelessness through the mass denial of nationality rights. Women from these groups are likely to face compounded discrimination on intersecting grounds owing to their gender, and thus, greater vulnerabilities. For example, in Madagascar, the Karana community, a predominantly Muslim minority group of Indo-Pakistani descent, faces entrenched discrimination and deprivation of nationality rights, despite living in the country for generations, perpetuating a multi-generational cycle of statelessness.37 (c) Indirect gender discrimination Indirect gender discrimination also plays a significant role as a cause of statelessness. Indirect discrimination refers to the gender discriminatory impact of laws, policies, and practices that may appear gender neutral, but in practice have a disproportionate and negative impact on women.38 As Petrozziello discusses, the impact of indirect discrimination against women in statelessness is an understudied area in the literature.39 There are a number of ways in which indirect gender discrimination contributes to statelessness of women, and children. The UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) discusses the impacts of indirect discrimination as a cause of statelessness in detail in its General Recommendation No. 32.40 The consequences of indirect discrimination resulting in increased risks of statelessness include indirect discrimination arising from genderneutral laws and practices, challenges in attaining birth registration, and difficulties in accessing and retaining identity documents, often due to displacement, conflict, or human trafficking. As the CEDAW Committee outlines, even nationality laws that appear gender neutral can be discriminatory in practice and lead to greater risks of statelessness. Generally, women are more likely than men to change their nationality to that of their foreign spouse and are therefore more vulnerable to statelessness if there is a gap between renouncing one nationality and acquiring another.41 For women who marry a foreign husband and relocate to his country, indirect discrimination may also result because women face more barriers and challenges in acquiring new nationality. For example, women are generally less likely to acquire adequate language skills in a new country, due to reduced access to education and the public sphere.42 They may also 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 UNHCR ‘Background Note’ op cit note 11 at 6. Mbiyozo op cit note 1 at 15-16. CEDAW GR 32 op cit note 6 para 54. Petrozziello op cit note 12 at 214. CEDAW GR 32 op cit note 6 para 51. Ibid para 54. Ibid para 55. Ibid. 23