A/HRC/23/23 and naturalization of stateless persons.” These conventions complement article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Read together, this international legal framework imposes an obligation on States to reform their nationality laws to ensure that they do not discriminate against women or their children and that they do not create or perpetuate situations of statelessness. III. Discrimination in the acquisition, change and retention of nationality 19. In many countries, nationality laws still do not grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change and retain their nationality; some laws contain discriminatory provisions that do not allow women to transfer nationality to their spouses on the same basis as men. These discriminatory laws are based on the principle of “dependent nationality”, which provides that a married woman’s nationality is dependent on that of her husband. 20. Where both the countries of the husband and the wife follow the principle of dependent nationality, the woman automatically acquires the nationality of her husband but loses her own. Where only the country of the wife follows the principle of dependent nationality, she will lose her nationality when marrying a foreigner, even if she does not automatically acquire the nationality of her husband. Women in those cases will become stateless, even if they remain in their country of origin. Where the husband’s country follows the principle of dependent nationality, the husband’s nationality will be imposed on the wife, regardless of whether she would like to acquire such a nationality. 21. In all of the above cases, if the nationality of the husband changes or is lost during the marriage, the wife’s nationality also changes. Similarly, in the event of termination of the marriage by death or divorce, the married woman may lose her entitlement to her husband’s nationality. Sometimes, couples divorce before the wife has gained her husband’s nationality. Women in these circumstances will be able to revert to their nationality of origin only if the laws of that State permit her to do so. Women are often not able to regain easily their nationality in a timely manner because of cumbersome procedures and, as a result, may become stateless.8 22. Women are also subjected to discrimination through laws that do not allow women to pass their nationality to their husbands or that impose on husbands stringent requirements before they are able to acquire the nationality of their wives; conversely, no such requirements or prohibitions are imposed on foreign wives married to male nationals.9 Such discriminatory laws are based on the State’s concern that men as the “head of the family” and by virtue of being a male are more likely to take advantage of economic opportunities.10 These laws discriminate against women and men of different nationalities who marry: for instance, foreign husbands may not be permitted to obtain a work permit, which may then force women to accept precarious and exploitative conditions of work that 8 9 10 6 See UNHCR, “No husband, no country”, Refugees, issue 3, No.147, 2007, available from www.unhcr.org/46d2e8dc2.html. See Equality Now, Campaign to End Sex Discrimination in Nationality and Citizenship Laws, 2012 (available from www.equalitynow.org/nationality_report); and Women’s Right to Nationality and Citizenship, Asia Pacific Occasional Paper Series No. 9, International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, 2006, pp. 6-7. United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, “Women, nationality and citizenship”, Women 2000 and Beyond, 2003 (available from www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/jun03e.pdf), p. 8; Bronwen Manby, Citizenship Law in Africa, Open Society Foundations, New York, 2010, p. 48.