8 Proposed Select Draft Articles on Nationality Rights to Ensure Gender Equality ◆ Bearing in mind the adopted, but not yet in force as of July 2025, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Relating to the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa: “A State Party shall grant women and men equal rights to acquire, transmit, change or retain their nationality, and with respect to the nationality of their children in accordance with national law. A State Party shall provide in law that: a. Marriage or the dissolution of a marriage between a national and a non-national shall not automatically change the nationality of either spouse nor affect the capacity of the national to transmit his or her nationality to his or her children. b. The change of nationality of one spouse during marriage shall not automatically affect the nationality of the other spouse or of the children.” ◆ Recalling also that Article 6 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) states that: “g) a woman shall have the right to retain her nationality or to acquire the nationality of her husband” ◆ Noting Article 1 of the American Convention on Human Rights guarantees non-discrimination on the basis of sex and Article 20 states that: 1. Every person has the right to a nationality. 2. Every person has the right to the nationality of the state in whose territory he was born if he does not have the right to any other nationality. 3. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality or of the right to change it. ◆ Noting the League of Arab States Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, which: “Call[s] upon Member States to end all forms of discrimination in the field of nationality and take concrete steps to amend laws and legislation at the national level related to equal nationality rights with the aim to reduce statelessness and protect the right of children to obtain a legal identity, including by strengthening laws that enable women to confer their nationality to their children and spouses in a way that conforms with international standards and does not contradict with national interests.” ◆ Noting Article 5 of the European Convention on Nationality states that: 1. The rules of a State Party on nationality shall not contain distinctions or include any practice which amounts to discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion, race, colour or national or ethnic origin. 2. Each State Party shall be guided by the principle of non-discrimination between its nationals, whether they are nationals by birth or have acquired its nationality subsequently. ◆ Considering that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the SDGs), calls for States to: “end all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere” (SDG 5.1); and “ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome by … eliminating discriminatory laws” (SDG 10.3); and “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration” (SDG 16.9); and that the Pact for the Future adopted by States in 2024 calls on States to “Urgently remove all legal barriers … to achieve gender equality ….” (Action 8); Therefore, we guarantee equality and non-discrimination at the national level in the acquisition, change, retention, and conferral of nationality rights.