A/HRC/23/23 universal periodic review, and the Human Rights Committee have also reminded States of their obligations to ensure equal rights for men and women in the acquisition, change and retention of nationality.24 33. UNHCR and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in accordance with the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, have recommended that where women have lost their citizenship through dissolution of marriage, their former State should introduce provisions to allow these women to automatically reacquire that nationality through a simple declaration.25 IV. Discrimination relating to the nationality of children 34. Despite the progress witnessed in many countries since the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, laws in around 30 countries still do not grant women equal rights with men with regard to the nationality of their children. 26 These countries attribute nationality to children solely on the basis of the father’s nationality; this constitutes discrimination against women. 35. Often women discover that they cannot transmit their nationality to their children only when they have their first child or when their husband leaves the family or dies, sometimes leaving them stateless.27 As a direct result of such discriminatory laws, women become disempowered, as their rights and opportunities are restricted. In such situations, for example, women are more reluctant to return to their country of origin for a job opportunity or a position in public services because their children will have no opportunity to attend school or have access to health services, given that they lack the nationality of their mothers. 36. Children living under laws that do not allow women to pass on nationality to their children risk becoming stateless, for instance when the father is stateless, unknown or not married to the mother at the time of birth; the father has been unable to take the administrative steps necessary to confer his nationality or acquire proof of nationality for his children owing to death, forcible separation from his family or inability to fulfil onerous documentation or other requirements; the father is unwilling to fulfil administrative steps to confer his nationality or acquire proof of nationality for his children (for example, if he has abandoned the family); or the laws of the father’s country do not permit him to confer nationality in certain circumstances, such as when the child is born abroad. 28 In addition, some contemporary families formed by single women or lesbian couples may find that their children are rendered stateless, because women are prevented from conferring their nationality. 37. Discriminatory laws in some countries allow no, or very limited, exceptions to their rules preventing mothers from conferring their nationality to their children. Other countries 24 25 26 27 28 See CCPR/CO/75/YEM, A/HRC/8/36 and A/HRC/10/75. UNHCR and IPU, Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians, Geneva, 2005 (available from www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/nationality_en.pdf), p. 33. UNHCR, Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness, 2012, available from www.unhcr.org/4f5886306.html. Laura van Waas, The situation of stateless persons in the Middle East and North Africa, UNHCR, 2010 (available from www.unhcr.org/4ce63e079.html), p. 39. UNHCR, Background Note on Gender Equality (see footnote 26) and UNHCR and the Collective for Research and Training on Development – Action, Regional Dialogue on Gender Equality, Nationality and Statelessness, 2011, available from www.unhcr.org/4f33ea656.html. 9