9.8. Derivative loss of nationality PRINCIPLE LEGAL STANDARD The derivative loss of nationality is prohibited. CRC, Art. 8: “1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference. 2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity. CEDAW, Art. 9(1): “States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or force upon her the nationality of the husband. 179. As was discussed with regard to Principle 9.5 above, every individual has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law and equality before the law. As such, individuals can be viewed as autonomous rights holders, whose status and rights are in principle not dependent on anyone else or on any relationship. In some instances, however, nationality and deprivation thereof have been made dependent on the nationality (and deprivation thereof) of another person. Children and female spouses are most likely to be subject to this derivative loss of nationality. Even though this practice is recognised in Article 6 of the 1961 Convention, this is contrary to human rights norms that supersede this provision and should never happen. 180. Article 7(2) ECN, similarly, allows for the loss of nationality by children whose parents both lose that nationality, except in cases of voluntary service in a foreign military force and/or conduct seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the State. At the same time, the ECN provides in Article 4(d) as a general principle that neither marriage nor the dissolution of a marriage between a national of a State and an alien, nor the change of nationality by one of the spouses during marriage, automatically affects the nationality of the other spouse. 181. Importantly, international human rights law recognises the individual, independent right to a nationality of children and women in, among others, Articles 7 and 8 of the CRC and Article 9 CEDAW. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has therefore recommended, for instance, that States “[r]eview 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 […]; [r]epeal laws stipulating […] automatic 86