Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2015/01 maternity, “most of the paternity cases at the Saudi courts were filed by Saudi husbands who had married foreign women without government approval.”46 Saudi fathers whose marriages are not registered can apply for an entry visa for their children and finish the paperwork granting nationality once in Saudi Arabia. If the father is deceased, does not take these necessary steps, or has married a woman whom he was forbidden from marrying, it is not clear that the child has any way to receive Saudi nationality. If a marriage is not registered and approved, and if the Saudi father refuses to acknowledge the child as his, the child will almost certainly not receive Saudi nationality.47 There are many possible combinations of a Saudi father, a non-GCC mother, and a given place of birth that would result in statelessness. Consider a Saudi man married to a Burmese national, one of four nationalities the Saudi man is prohibited from marrying. Burma’s nationality law recognizes a child as a Burmese nationality only when both parents are Burmese nationals.48 Burma does not allow for dual nationals, so the child could not receive Burmese nationality, nor would the child receive Saudi nationality unless the child was recognized by the Saudi government, even though the marriage contravenes Saudi law. Turning to the UAE, International women’s rights group FIDH reports that an Emirati woman who marries without prior approval can lose her nationality or lose the opportunity to convey nationality to her foreign husband. Meanwhile, “Emirati men are free to marry foreign women” 49 unless they are in the armed forces, in which case they are required to obtain prior government approval.50 Some of these restrictions appear to be mere formalities and are likely to result in violations of the law. Other restrictions are severe and carry harsh consequences. These states restrict the ability of its citizens to marry, and may refuse to acknowledge as legitimate the children born to these couples. As noted above, children born out of wedlock may not be able to have their births registered or their relationships with their fathers verified. In a region that strongly favours conveying nationality through the father, restrictions on marriage place the children of these unions at a severe risk of statelessness. When non-marital children are at risk of statelessness, so too are children whose parents were married but whose marriages are not recognized. In the interests of ending statelessness, limitations on marriages should be critically examined to ensure that children of unrecognized unions receive a nationality at birth. 4. Conclusion Gender discrimination in the GCC displays itself not just in nationality law but also in civil registration and civil status (or family) law. As a result of laws that discriminate on the basis of gender and marital status, children experience human rights violations including statelessness. Discrimination that targets women, non-marital children, and children of unrecognized marriages creates a significant risk of statelessness. These risks are amplified when combined with gender-discriminatory nationality laws and when verification of the child’s relationship to the father is the primary or only way for the child to receive nationality. In at least some countries, non-marital children are at severe risk of stateless because the mother may not be able to register the child’s birth, and there may not be a way for the 46 Al-Arabiya, Over 1,850 Paternity, Maternity Rows Brought before Saudi Courts, (Oct. 27, 2014), http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/10/27/Over-1-850-paternity-maternity-rows-brought-beforeSaudi-courts.html 47 UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, SUBMISSION FOR UNIVERSAL PERIOD REVIEW OF SAUDI ARABIA, http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5135c0902.pdf 48 Burma Citizenship Law, Oct. 15, 1982, http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b4f71b.htm 49 Fidh, Women's Rights in the United Arab Emirates (UAE): Note Submitted to the 45th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on the Occasion of its First Examination of the UAE, (4, Jan. 2010), https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/UAE_summaryreport_for_CEDAW.pdf 50 ABU DHABI EGOVERNMENT GATEWAY, GETTING MARRIED, https://www.abudhabi.ae/portal/public/en/citizens/family/getting_married?_afrLoop=5287076128369447&_adf.ctrlstate=1bl3y8bc7a_4 7