the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless, or force upon her the nationality of the husband and 2. States parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children. Regional instruments have similarly addressed the issues of nondiscrimination in nationality law. The 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa provides, “a woman shall have the right to retain her nationality or to acquire the nationality of her husband.” However, the protocol contains a caveat when it comes to the right to confer nationality on children: a woman and a man shall have equal rights with respect to the nationality of their children, except where this is contrary to a provision in national legislation or is contrary to national security interests. More recently, the UN has responded to the recent refugee crisis and associated risk of statelessness by calling member states to implement reforms that ensure their legislation is consistent with Article 9 of CEDAW. In 2014, the CEDAW Committee had issued its General Recommendation No. 32 on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality, and statelessness of women, which calls on member states to: (a) Review and withdraw their reservations to Article 9 of CEDAW because they are incompatible with the object and purpose of CEDAW and thus impermissible under Article 28 (2); (b) Review and reform their nationality laws to ensure equality of women and men with regard to the acquisition, changing, and retention of nationality and to enable women to transmit their nationality to their children and to their foreign spouses and to ensure that any obstacles to practical implementation of such laws are removed, in full compliance with Articles 1 to 3 and 9 of CEDAW; (c) Repeal laws stipulating the automatic acquisition of nationality upon marriage or automatic loss of a woman’s nationality as a result of changes in the marital status or nationality of her husband; (d) Consider permitting dual nationality where women have married foreign men, and for the children born of such unions, especially in situations in which legal regimes providing for dual nationality may lead to statelessness; (e) Prevent statelessness through legislative provisions making the loss or renunciation of nationality contingent on possession or acquisition of another nationality, and allow reacquisition of nationality for women left stateless owing to the absence of such safeguards; and (f) Promote awareness of recent legal and policy development granting women equal rights with men to acquire, change, or retain their nationality or enabling women to confer their nationality to their children and their foreign spouses. Sources: Govil and Edwards 2014; 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws, Preamble; 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Nationality of Women, Article 1; UDHR 1948, Article 15; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 19 December 1966, in force 23 March 1976, Article 24(3); International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families 18 December 1990, in force 1 July 2003, Article 29; African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 11 July 1990, in force 29 November 1999, Article 6; Convention on the Nationality of Married Women 29 January 1957, in force 11 August 1958, Article 1; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 18 December 1979, in force 3 September 1981, Article 9; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 32 on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality, and statelessness of women, CEDAW/C/GC/32, 14 November 2014, paragraph 63(a–f). 26 ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ID: GENDER-BASED LEGAL BARRIERS AGAINST WOMEN AND GOOD PRACTICE REFORMS