The Impact of Gender Discrimination on Statelessness The CEDAW Committee further observes that ‘stateless women and girls are often marginalised’ and deprived of a host of rights, including the right to political participation, access to social benefits, and access to justice, as well as their human rights to education, health care, property, and employment.71 In addition, many stateless people face barriers in mobility, right to travel, and right to legally form a family through marriage. While all stateless people are likely to face challenges in accessing key services and rights, there is evidence to suggest that women face compounded challenges in accessing such services owing to gender inequalities, discrimination, and patriarchal norms.72 The consequences are significant, as empirical research shows that stateless people tend to have lower income levels, lower education levels, and poorer health outcomes.73 As women are usually paid less than men, and have less access to education than men, while shouldering greater home and childcare responsibilities, the gendered impacts are compounded.74 In general, restrictions on access to health services can arise because stateless people are formally excluded, or because of differential fees for non-nationals, or the lack of identity documentation, or immigration status.75 Restrictions on access to health care ‘… disproportionately affect women who may be unable to receive proper sexual and reproductive health care, including maternal and neonatal care’.76 Lack of access to services can be life threatening, when women cannot obtain health care or seek legal assistance, such as in cases of VAW. Statelessness also severely impacts mobility and the ability to travel, a situation often heightened for women, who tend to face greater barriers to moving around and travelling.77 There is also some evidence that statelessness negatively impacts the right to form a family, to marry and to have children, as the legal process of marriage typically requires identity documents.78 While there is a clear need for further research into the gendered impacts of statelessness as experienced by women themselves, the foregoing outlines keys areas of concern and demonstrates that gender discrimination certainly impacts the harms, restrictions, and vulnerabilities commonly experienced by women who are stateless. III. RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORKS (a) International human rights law: Protecting the right to a nationality, gender equality, and non-discrimination CEDAW GR 32 op cit note 6 para 53. Women’s Refugee Commission ‘Our motherland, our country: Gender discrimination and statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa’ (2013) at 3, available at www.womensrefugeecommission.org/research-resources/our-motherland-our-country-gender-discrimination-and-statelessness-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/, accessed on 12 May 2022. 73 D Blitz S Balaton-Chrimes R Lakshman & M Lynch ‘The cost of statelessness: A livelihoods analysis’ Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, United States Department of State (2011). 74 Rijken et al op cit note 68 at 19, 60. 75 UN HRC op cit note 59 para 50. 76 Ibid at 70. 77 Rijken et al op cit note 68 at 58. 78 Ibid at 70. 71 72 27