The Impact of Gender Discrimination on Statelessness men and women. (d) National level developments Over recent decades, many countries, including in the Southern Africa region, have moved away from the dependent nationality approach and recognised that denying women their nationality simply due to marriage, or from sharing their nationality with their children, was clear gender discrimination in nationality laws. Groundbreaking litigation and advocacy initiatives have sometimes driven law reform at the domestic level, although progress has been slow. For example, the landmark Botswana case Dow v. Attorney-General139 demonstrates both the consequences of gender discriminatory laws and the impact of advocacy in forcing law reform. Unity Dow, a female human rights lawyer and judge, married an American foreign national and they had three children.140 Botswana’s Citizenship Act 1984 provided that children born in Botswana are citizens of Botswana only if (1) the father is a citizen, or (2) if the child is born out of wedlock, the mother is a citizen.141 Thus the law prohibited women, like Dow, who are married to foreign nationals, from passing their Botswana nationality to their children. Consequently, her children could not share her nationality and would require residence permits to remain in the country, and they would also be denied access to social, health, and educational benefits.142 Dow claimed that this provision of the Citizenship Act was a violation of the Constitution’s equality protections because it discriminated against women on the basis of sex.143 Botswana’s High Court and Court of Appeal agreed, and ruled that this provision of the nationality law was unconstitutional due to discrimination on the basis of sex.144 The Botswana Citizenship Act was subsequently amended to confirm that any person born in Botswana is a national of Botswana, if either the mother or father is a national.145 Other countries in the region, such as Zambia and Zimbabwe, have taken steps to reform their nationality laws through their Constitutions to ensure compliance with gender equality rights.146 More recently, in 2017, Madagascar amended its nationality laws to give women equal rights to transmit nationality to their children.147 In addition, there has been progress towards reforming administrative laws and procedures that discriminate against women. For example, in 2004 Mozambique reformed its Civil Registration Code to allow either parent to register the birth of a Dow v Attorney-General 991 BLR 233 (High Court of Botswana), affirmed on appeal Attorney-General v Dow 1992 BLR 119 (Botswana Court of Appeal). 140 Ibid at 235–236. 141 Ibid at 236–237. 142 Ibid at 242–243. 143 Ibid at 243 144 Ibid at 247. 145 Botswana Citizenship Act (Cap 01-01) (Act No 8 of 1998), Article 4(1). 146 Constitution of Zambia Act No1 of 1991; Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act No 14 of 1996. 147 Madagascar Law No 2016-038 of 25 January 2017, Article 9. 148 Mozambique Law No 12 on the Civil Registration Code 2004 (as amended by law 12/2018), Article 149; and Mozambique Family Law, 2004 (amended by law 22/2019), Article 238(1). 139 37