Statelessness Working Paper Series 2016/08 currently in force in 27 countries.10 Half of these are found in the Middle-East North African region.11 As a result, unknown numbers of children grow up without access to identity documents that unlock education, health care or employment opportunities. A plain reading of the Iraqi Constitution would indicate that the children born of rape survivors would automatically enjoy nationality. Yet, as evidenced in a number of other countries, ending statelessness is not merely a matter of black letter law.12 Like Iraq, Nepali legal provisions allow that a child obtains nationality by descent from either the mother or the father, or both. In practice, however, a child seeking nationality through his or her mother faces nearly insurmountable challenges. According to a legal aid advocate, “The problem is not in the laws but in the mind-sets of government employees entrusted with the responsibility of issuing citizenship cards. They cannot imagine a women’s identity independent of a man.”13 Nepal's bureaucratic system reportedly discriminates widely against all women, but especially those who have gone abroad for work, women who have been raped or abandoned, trafficked, married to foreigners, or otherwise, forced to leave home or divorce.14 Consequently, there are over 4 million Nepalese15 estimated to live without citizenship papers and who cannot obtain driving licenses, open bank accounts, pursue higher education or conduct legal transactions.16 As explained by Van Waas, “there are persons who would legally be eligible for a particular nationality, who are nonetheless not considered as nationals by the state, and whose statelessness is consequently hidden.”17 3. The importance of documents in Iraq Though there is evidence of significant levels of domestic violence, rape and early marriage in Iraq’s IDP camps, legal aid organizations report that they are rarely asked for assistance in addressing these crimes.18 Instead, legal aid organizations receive a significant number of requests from IDPs to secure official documentation, including identity cards and marriage and death certificates in order to secure free movement and to access basic services, including education, health care, and welfare 10 UNHCR, Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2016, 8 March 2016, available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/56de83ca4.html; see also, Angelina E. Theodorou, 27 Countries Limit a Woman’s Ability to Pass Citizenship to Her Child or Spouse, Pew Research Center, August 5, 2014. 11 The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, available at: http://www.equalnationalityrights.org/index.php/countries/middle-east-north-africa. 12 See Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, The Worlds Stateless, December 2014, p. 107, “The Iraqi authorities have since reported that the vast majority of those Faili Kurds who remained in or returned to Iraq have now had their nationality reinstated...Nevertheless, the requirements to be met by Faili Kurds seeking to regain their nationality were described in one report as “almost crippling” and a relatively small but unknown number of persons concerned have been able to satisfy the evidentiary requirements such that statelessness remains a problem in Iraq.” Citing, F. J. Darah, “Faili Kurds: The curse of compound identity and scars of collective memory,” in S. Salloum, Minorities in Iraq: Memory, Identity and Challenges, Masarat for Culture and Media Development, 2013, page 120. 13 Bhuwan Sharma, Rights-Nepal: Laws Have Changed, Mindsets Haven’t, Inter Press Service, 8 April 2010, available at http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/04/rights-nepal-laws-have-changed-mindsets-havenrsquot/. 14 Getting Nepali citizenship is a tough call, BBC, 21 June 2012, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india18232250. 15 Susann Nowack, Gender Discrimination in Nepal and How Statelessness Hampers Identity Formation, Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2015/02, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, December 2015, available at http://www.institutesi.org/WP2015_02.pdf. 16 Getting Nepali citizenship is a tough call, BBC, 21 June 2012, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india18232250. 17 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, The Worlds Stateless, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, December 2014, available at http://www.institutesi.org/worldsstateless.pdf. 18 UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Iraq, CEDAW/C/IRQ/CO/4-6, para. 9; Iraqi Women in Armed Conflict and Post Conflict Situation Shadow Report submitted to the CEDAW committee at the 57th Session February 2014; UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Report on Human Rights in Iraq: January - June 2014, August 2014. 3