Recommendations
38. Drawing on the information provided in this submission, the co-submitting organisations urge Member
States to make the following recommendations to The Bahamas:
I.
Remove all remaining gender discriminatory provisions in the Constitution and Nationality Act
in order to enshrine: married and unmarried women’s ability to confer nationality on children
and spouses on an equal basis with married and unmarried men; and the ability of men and
women to confer nationality on children on an equal basis regardless of their sex, marital status,
or pre-Independence birth outside of the country.
II.
Remove all reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women and sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention. Remove its reservation to
Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
III.
Take steps to ensure that all children and adults who have been denied access to Bahamian
citizenship due to gender discriminatory nationality laws, are granted nationality and in the
interim, that they fully enjoy their other human rights on a non-discriminatory and equal basis.
IV.
Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961
Convention on to Reduction of Statelessness to ensure the development of legislation and
regulations which ensure every child’s right to a nationality and that no child is born stateless in
The Bahamas.