Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2015/01 nationality, he/she is at a severe risk of statelessness.17 Gender discrimination in civil registration law occurs when mothers have less opportunity than fathers to register the births of their children. Like all gender discrimination, gender discrimination in civil registration law is forbidden by numerous international legal instruments. While gender discrimination in nationality law and the importance of civil registration law are both frequently discussed in literature on the causes of statelessness, gender discrimination in civil registration law is not.18 Many legal and societal factors may dissuade a mother from registering her child’s birth. Even where nationality law technically allows a woman to convey nationality to her children, this right may be rendered completely theoretical if the mother cannot register the births of her children and thereby give the child proof of her nationality.19 Every GCC country’s civil status provides a list of individuals responsible for documenting the child’s birth, with legal responsibility falling to each individual in the order they are listed (meaning that the second person on the list faces personal liability for failure to register only if the first person on the list is unavailable to do so, and so on). Each country’s law prioritizes male relatives over female relatives. Only Saudi law explicitly allows a mother to register the birth of her child; the other states do not clearly state that a mother could register the birth of her child.20 Under Kuwaiti civil registration law, there is no way for a woman to register the birth of her child.21 In Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the Emirates, preference is given to registration by the father, but it is unclear whether mothers can register or not.22 At least some GCC states also prevent parents from registering non-marital children. While Kuwait and Oman’s policies are unclear, any form of birth registration in Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia requires the parents to show documentation of their marriage.23 It appears that non-marital children can only be registered, then, as foundlings or orphans. This means that non-marital children will have their births registered and will receive nationality, but only because they are treated as if they were abandoned. When non-Emirati women have children out of wedlock in the Emirates, “only the courts can issue a birth certificate, and…they normally do so after a conviction [for adultery].”24 Clearly, each GCC country has a policy favouring birth registration from the father, precluding a mother from registering the child’s birth where the father is available to do so. Most, if not all, place significant obstacles on registering non-marital children. When women are deprived of the ability to register their children, and when non-marital children cannot be registered, this violates international norms forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender and birth status. But this discrimination also increases the likelihood that children will go undocumented, become stateless later in life, and be unable to access basic human rights without proof of their identity. In order to ensure that all children are registered at birth, as Action 7 of UNHCR’s Global Plan aims to do, the international community must address gender discrimination in civil registration law as well as nationality law, and also address discrimination on the basis of birth status. 17 L Van Waas, Nationality Matters, supra note 13, at 153. Fisher, ‘Why Non-Marital Children in the MENA Region Face a Risk of Statelessness’, (2015) HARVARD HUM. RIGHTS J. ONLINE, http://harvardhrj.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Fisher_HRJ_01-05-15.pdf 19 L Van Waas, Nationality Matters, supra note 13, at 153. 20 Saudi Civil Registration Act of 2001, art. 29. 21 Kuwaiti Law No. 36 of 1969 concerning the System of Registering Births and Deaths. 22 Bahraini Law No. 6 of 1970, Organizing Birth and Death Registration (last amended by Law. No. 17 of 1998), art. 1; Omani Civil Status Law, art. 16, http://www.civilstatus.gov.om/english/law_03.asp; Qatari Law No. 5 of 1982 on the Organization of Birth and Death Registration, art. 3, http://www.sjc.gov.qa/lawlib/criminal_law/criminal/laws/5-1982/1.htm; Emirati Federal Law Number 18 for 2009 in Organizing Birth and Death Registration, art. 5. 23 Bahraini Law No. 6 of 1970, art. 1 (outlining that, in cases of unestablished paternity, a child treated in the same manner as a foundling, the child of unknown parents); QATARI GOVERNMENT, ISSUING THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE [AR], http://tinyurl.com/mf6e4gy (requiring a marriage certificate to register a child); SAUDI MINISTERIAL AGENCY OF CIVIL AFFAIRS, SERVICES, http://tinyurl.com/oaxdnrd (similar). 24 W Issa, Children Jailed with their Mothers in UAE Visa Amnesty, THE NATIONAL, (March 31, 2013) http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/children-jailed-with-their-mothers-in-uae-visa-amnesty 18 B 3