A/78/256 continually urged States parties to uphold gender equality and non -discrimination in relation to women’s right to nationality and, in its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, has clarified that States parties have an obligation, under article 9, to ensure that spouses have equal rights to confer their nationality. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination also establish obligations on States parties to protect the right to nationality of the groups in question. 7 7. Two international conventions on statelessness address the discriminatory treatment of women in nationality matters, albeit in an incomprehensive manner. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is primarily concerned with the protection of persons who are already stateless. The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness articulates a positive legal duty of States to prevent and reduce statelessness in nationality laws and practices. It explicitly states that a child born in the territory of a contracting State, whose mother has the nationality of that State, shall acquire that nationality at birth by operation of law or upon application, if the child would otherwise be stateless. Article 6 of the 1961 Convention stipulates that the loss or deprivation of nationality must be conditional upon the possession or acquisition of another nationality, while article 8 imposes a negative duty on States not to render a person stateless through the deprivation of nationality, albeit with a few exceptions. 8 These articles, combined with developments in international law on women’s rights, firmly establish the duty of States to prevent statelessness and uphold non-discrimination. 8. Regional instruments also guarantee the right to nationality. While the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights) does not contain an explicit right to nationality, the Council of Europe established the European Convention on Nationality and the Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to State succession. The Convention on the Nationality of Women, adopted in Montevideo in 1933, was the first regional treaty emphasizing the civil and political equality of women and explicitly calling upon States to end gender discrimination in nationality laws and practices. Years later, the American Convention on Human Rights, in its article 20, stated the universal right to nationality. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights reiterates the obligations of States to ensure the universal access of every child to nationality. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) urges States parties to take corrective action on discrimination against women in law and to enact appropriate national legislative measures to ensure women’s eq ual right to nationality. The Arab Charter on Human Rights enshrines the principle of equality, although it does not explicitly address the issue of non-discrimination in nationality laws, and, in the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, refor ms of nationality laws to establish gender equality with regard to nationality rights were welcomed. The right to nationality is also reaffirmed in general terms in the Human Rights __________________ 7 8 23-14780 For example, articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 5 (d) (iii) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, article 29 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of A ll Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and article 18 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Nationality may be deprived on exceptional grounds of residency (article 7, paras. 4 and 5), misrepresentation or fraud (article 8, para. 2 (b)), disloyalty to the State or formal allegiance to another State (article 8, para. 3). 5/23