Heather Alexander such as exists in some other states with significant minority, indigenous or aboriginal populations,118 nor towards a federal system. 5.3 Islamic law and Malian nationality law Questions over the role of Islamic law in Mali continue to be important to both Mali’s nationality laws and their implementation. Secularism and the role of women under the law continue to be contentious issues. Though the 1992 Constitution enshrines secularism as central to Mali’s law, Islamic leaders and their scholarship and influence continue to play an important role.119 The nationality code remains ill-suited for harmonisation with parallel systems of identity and authority based on Islamic principles and traditional practices, such as naming ceremonies, or the role of the Amanokal in Tuareg society. As a result, there remains considerable tension between the written nationality code and local practices. 5.4 Efforts to address statelessness Following the ratification of the two UN statelessness conventions, Mali has created an interministerial commission on statelessness and enacted a National plan of action to end statelessness. Considerable gaps remain, such as the lack of a procedure for facilitated naturalisation for stateless persons under Art. 32 of the 1954 Convention.120 At the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in October 2019, the Malian government made a number of crucial pledges to end statelessness, including on stateless migrants, data collection, birth registration and foundlings.121 6. Conclusion Today, Mali has a relatively liberal nationality law, which has been improved through reforms in 1995 and 2011. Problems with the 1962 law, such as gender and racial discrimination, have been mostly removed. The current law, however, continues to contain aspects of gender discrimination and discrimination against children born out-of-wedlock. As well, Mali lacks key protections against statelessness, such as a clause ensuring that children born in Mali who would otherwise be stateless receive Malian nationality. Some aspects of Mali’s registration 118 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, August 2013, HR/PUB/13/2. For an example, see the recognition of aboriginal peoples in Malaysia, including the Orang Asli at http://minorityrights.org/minorities/orang-asli/. 119 Andrew Lebovich, ‘Sacred Struggles: How Islam shapes politics in Mali’ European Council on Foreign Relations Policy Brief (1 Nov. 2019). 120 UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 28 September 1954, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 360; UN General Assembly, Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 30 August 1961, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 989, p. 175; UNHCR, ‘Implementation of the Banjul Action Plan, Newsletter #14’, July – September 2017 121 UNHCR, ‘Results of the High-Level Segment on Statelessness’ October 2020. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/11 - © 2020 Author(s) 21