must meet certain conditions in order to comply with international law, in particular the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality.’15 Gender Discrimination in Qatar’s nationality laws 15. According to Qatar’s Nationality Act No. 38 of 2005, a Qatari woman cannot confer nationality on her children under any circumstances, while Qatari men automatically confer nationality on their children whether they are born abroad or in the country. Article 1.4 of the law states, “Any person born in Qatar or in a foreign country to a Qatari father in accordance with the preceding Articles.” 16. Article 2 of the nationality law grants priority for naturalisation to persons whose mother is Qatari, however this process remains discriminatory and discretionary. 17. In addition, Qatari women have no opportunity to confer nationality on their foreign spouses, and their naturalisation procedures are not facilitated. Under Article 5 of the 2005 Nationality Act, wives of Qatari men however – whether Qatari by birth or naturalized - benefit from facilitated naturalisation.16 18. These provisions render the Qatari nationality law the most restrictive and discriminatory towards women in the world. While 24 other countries discriminate against women in their ability to pass on nationality to their children, none of these countries have a blanket prohibition in place. The clear discriminatory nature of the law, in contravention of international standards, is detrimental to the legal status of women in the country, as well as being contrary to the Qatari constitution. Its Article 35 states that “All persons are equal before the law and there shall be no discrimination whatsoever on grounds of sex, race, language, or religion.”17 19. Secondly, such gender discrimination in the nationality law results in a range of other human rights violations, impacting children, women and their foreign male spouses. These include, the denial of the right to a nationality and resultant statelessness; lack of access to public education, healthcare and other services; increased risk of gender-based violence and impeded family reunification.18 For example, when foreign men are denied access to their Qatari spouses’ nationality, they may be forced to live away from their children due to challenges in acquiring residency permits and obstacles to employment, or they may try to take the children away from the mother and back to their own country. 15 A detailed report of the impact of deprivation of nationality on the enjoyment of human rights is set out in A/HRC/19/43 The article states: “The wife of a naturalized person may be, by an Emiri decision, granted Qatari nationality by virtue of her husband, provided that her stay with him in Qatar extends for a period of at least five years from the date her husband acquired Qatari nationality”. See an English translation of the entire law at: http://www.almeezan.qa/LawView.aspx?opt&LawID=2591&language=en 17 See the relevant article at: http://www.almeezan.qa/LawArticles.aspx?LawTreeSectionID=6677&lawId=2284&language=ar 18 Equality Now, Campaign to End Sex Discrimination in Nationality and Citizenship Laws, 2013 (updated May 2014, Feb. 2015), available at http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/NationalityReport_EN.pdf 16 4