enshrined in the Constitution, further exacerbating a sexist and discriminatory framework for women’s role in the family and society. Women’s unequal ability to confer nationality on spouses also negatively impacts women’s ability to freely choose a spouse, to form a family, and to ensure family unity. By denying women equal rights with men to confer nationality on their spouse, Morocco’s Nationality Code threatens the right of Moroccan children to know and be cared for by their father, as he may face obstacles to residing with his family in Morocco without citizenship. This discrimination can also perpetuate statelessness, when the spouse of a Moroccan woman is stateless or may lose his nationality due to prolonged absence from his country of origin. Stateless persons face wide-ranging human rights violations and hardships, including obstacles to accessing healthcare, social services, formal employment, property rights, inheritance, freedom of movement, and identity documentation. Stateless persons are also at a greater risk of human trafficking, arbitrary detention, and lack of access to justice. Gender discrimination in Morocco’s nationality law also contributes to the root cause of gender-based violence by undermining women’s equal status in society. 15. We applaud reforms enacted by the Government of Morocco in 2007, which enshrined the equal rights of Moroccan women and men to confer citizenship on their children. We were pleased to have the Government of Morocco champion the benefits of these reforms, as a cosponsor of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights’ High Level Side Event during the 62nd UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2018. We welcomed statements made by Morocco’s then Minister of Family, Solidarity, Equality and Social Development, who emphasized genderequal nationality laws benefit society as a whole and expressed strong support for amending remaining discriminatory provisions in Morocco’s Nationality Code, in order to uphold Moroccan women’s right to confer nationality on a noncitizen spouse on an equal basis with Moroccan men. We urge the Government of Morocco to realize this commitment and enact reforms to uphold gender equality in all Nationality Code provisions. Affected families continue to suffer as a result of women’s unequal ability to confer nationality on their spouse. Other nationality/statelessness issues 16. In addition to articles seeking to ameliorate gender-based discrimination, the 2007 Nationality Code reform also included a step forward by granting, in the 2nd paragraph of article 9, Moroccan nationality by Kafala (support by a couple or a woman of a child born of unknown parents, of an unknown father and abandoned by his mother and any children of badly behaved or destitute parents), thus solving other cases of statelessness. However, the rights of succession and filiation are still not granted to the persons concerned. Recommendations The discriminatory laws and practices outlined above cause grave human rights violations and undermine women’s equal citizenship. We call on the Government of Morocco to take urgent steps to align its legislation and practice with international law, including the right to non-discrimination and every person’s right to a nationality. We respectfully urge Member States to make the following recommendations to the government of Morocco: I. Reform the Nationality Code to uphold the right of Moroccan women to confer nationality on their noncitizen spouse on an equal basis with, and under the same conditions required of Moroccan men; and 5