psychological damage. Gender discrimination in nationality laws also contributes to women’s unequal status in society and within the family, and may result in the separation of family members.13 34. Children denied Bahamian nationality due to gender discrimination in the nationality laws may also suffer from violations of their right to healthcare and to education, enshrined in CRC Articles 24 and 28. We maintain that the human rights of equal protection under the law and non-discrimination on the basis of sex are not legitimately subject to majority opinion, but must be upheld by the State. 35. The Bahamian electorate’s rejection of the insertion of “sex” into the Constitution as a prohibited ground for discrimination at the failed Constitutional Referendum poses a significant threat to equality. The fact that the highest law in the land does not prohibit discrimination based upon sex is likely to be a contributing factor in fomenting a culture where women are not considered equal to their male counterparts. The inequality bred by the lack of this provision is likely related to the high incidence of violence against women that is found in Bahamian society. According to a recent UN Women report, for example, The Bahamas is one of the top 10 countries in the world for per capita rape of women and the country’s own Strategic Plan to Address Gender-Based Violence supports this claim ands provides evidence of other rates of gender-based violence. 36. In this context, a Constitutional provision that prohibits discrimination based upon sex, sufficient to eradicate this culture of violence against women in and of itself, would demonstrate that before the law, women are not second-class citizens, but are equals to their male counterparts. To further support the latter point on the relationship between gender discrimination and gender-based violence, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women states that “Gender-based violence, which impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms under general international law or under human rights conventions, is discrimination within the meaning of Article 1 of the Convention.”14 37. The impact of gender discrimination in the nationality law on one family was documented by Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights steering committee Member Equality Now: “Maxime is originally from Haiti but has lived in the Bahamas for fourteen years. A few years ago he married Annie-Lavel, a Bahamian woman, and they have two Bahamian-born children and were expecting a third. Maxime was working legally in the Bahamas under a work permit, which he had to renew regularly. All was fine until he had a disagreement with his employer and lost his sponsorship. He applied for a resident spouse permit, but the authorities refused to start the process until he received his birth certificate from Haiti, which took almost a year, with the Haitian authorities reporting it initially lost. The family then lost their home through fire and Maxime took up odd jobs to support them all, even though working without a permit was illegal. Some of his employers exploited this and didn’t pay him. In addition, he was picked up several times by immigration control and held in detention until pregnant Annie-Lavel trekked by foot to where he was detained to beg for his release. The family has also had to find further funds to pay the permit application fees as well as fees for translation of the birth certificate. A non-national woman marrying a Bahamian man has automatic entitlement to citizenship on marriage.”15 13 Ibid. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/recomm.htm 15 Equality Now, “The State We’re In: Ending Sexism in Nationality Laws,” January 2016, pages 22-23, available at: https://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/NationalityReport_EN.pdf 14