Ms. Isata Kabia, Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs of the Republic of Sierra Leone speaking during the High-level side event
at CSW62, New York ©UN Women/Ryan Brown
Implementation of the Global Action Plan
On 16 February, Burkina Faso officially launched its
National Action Plan to end statelessness at a high-level
ceremony. The plan is in line with the 2017 Banjul Plan of
Action and aims to eradicate statelessness by 2024.
In line with Action 3 (Remove gender discrimination
from nationality laws), the Council of Ministers in
Sudan proposed an amendment to the 1994 Sudanese
Nationality Act on 25 February. The change would allow
Sudanese mothers to confer nationality to children where
the father is from South Sudan, as Sudanese fathers can
confer nationality to children where the mother is South
Sudanese.
With respect to Action 2 (Ensure that no child is born
stateless), on 10 March, the Congress of Peru approved
amendments to Article 52 of the Constitution to facilitate
access to Peruvian nationality for persons born abroad
to Peruvian mothers and/or fathers. The amendment
eliminates an age limitation that existed previously:
parents no longer need to register a child born abroad
with Peruvian authorities before the child is 18 years of
age. Final approval is required by the Executive.
Togo has begun a review of its Nationality Law to bring
it in line with the Constitution, which provides for equality
between women and men in their ability to confer their
nationality to their children. Today Togo remains one
of 25 countries where mothers are unable to confer
nationality to their children on an equal basis as fathers,
but there are strong indications in favor of reform in the
near future.
On 6 January, amendments to the Citizenship Law
entered into force in Armenia. Among other things, the
amendments allow for children born to an Armenian
national and a foreigner to obtain Armenian citizenship
based on the consent of only one parent. Previously, both
parents had to provide consent.
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