HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ARAB WOMEN’S RIGHT TO NATIONALITY CAMPAIGN9 àà A coalition of women’s rights organizations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has worked since 2002 to achieve gender equality in nationality laws in the region. àà The initial phase of the Campaign involved comprehensive reviews of each country’s nationality laws and how they were applied in practice. This informed research-based advocacy. àà Regional networking has allowed for the sharing of information on areas of opportunity and ways to overcome obstacles. It has also helped improve the planning of campaigns tailored to unique national contexts. Successful law reform in certain countries in the region has had knock-on effects, promoting reform in neighbouring countries. àà Engagement with the CEDAW Committee is a key component of all national campaigns. àà The Campaign promotes dialogue with governments at the national level and the forging of partnerships with sympathetic policy-makers. àà Effective use of the media and social networking has drawn attention to the Campaign at both the national and regional levels. àà The launch of the Campaign coincided with important donor support at the regional and national levels, based on donors’ acknowledgement of the importance of gender equality in nationality matters for women’s empowerment. àà The Campaign continues in countries that have yet to achieve reform, as well as to ensure implementation in countries where the laws have been amended. It receives ongoing support from international NGOs, including the Women’s Learning Partnership, and collaborates with other regional gender-equality platforms. A key driver of nationality law reform in the MENA region has been the Arab Women’s Right to Nationality Campaign. An overview of the genesis of this Campaign helps to show how success was achieved at the national level and can serve as a model for further initiatives. In 2002, under the initiative of the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD.A), a Lebanon-based NGO, a loose coalition of women’s rights NGOs from across MENA met at a workshop in Morocco hosted by the Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM). The NGOs identified unequal treatment of women in nationality laws as the heart of women’s social disadvantage in the region. The coalition anchored its Campaign on the fact that although most Arab countries were party to the CEDAW, many had entered reservations to Article 9(2) to avoid changing nationality laws that discriminated against women. Acknowledging the shared challenges in achieving women’s equality in the MENA region, while recognizing that each country presents unique circumstances and opportunities, the NGOs decided to join efforts to seek gender equality in nationality laws. The start of the Campaign in 2002 coincided with increased donor interest in women’s empowerment in the Arab region. Understanding that the right to nationality is often the foundation for enjoying other rights, in 2001 the Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)10 launched the Gender and Citizenship Initiative.11 The aim was to support partnerships and build the capacity of women’s groups in the region, as well as to fund advocacy-oriented research.12 9 Please see CRTD.A’s Arab Women’s Right to Nationality Campaign website, available at: http://crtda.org.lb/project/22 10 The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a long-standing partner of CRTD.A. Its website is available at: http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Pages/default.aspx 11 A copy of the UNDP/POGAR and IDRC report launching their Gender and Citizenship Initiative, Women are Citizens too: The Laws of the State, the Lives of Women (December 2001), is available at: http://goo.gl/Zi0vMk 12 The theme was further endorsed in the Regional Arab Human Development Report in 2002, co-sponsored by the Arab Bureau of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, which identified women’s empowerment as one of three key deficits to overcome in the Arab world. 6 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS