PART 1 - STAGE 1: PREPARATION Asia The nationality laws in five countries in Asia and the Pacific do not provide mothers equal rights as fathers to confer their nationality on their children. In Brunei Darussalam the nationality law does not permit national women to confer their nationality to their children at all. In Iran, with the 2019 reform to the nationality law, Iranian women married to non-Iranian men can in principle apply to confer their nationality to their children regardless of where they are born, with retroactive effect. Under Kiribati’s nationality law, children born in the country to a Kiribati father or mother can acquire the nationality of Kiribati; however, only children born abroad to Kiribati fathers, not mothers, acquire the nationality of Kiribati. In Malaysia, children born in the country to either Malaysian mothers or Malaysian fathers automatically acquire Malaysian nationality. However, children born to Malaysian mothers outside Malaysia may only acquire Malaysian citizenship at the discretion of the Federal Government through registration at an overseas Malaysian consulate or at the National Registration Department in Malaysia. In Nepal, the Nepalese nationality law provides for a Nepalese woman to confer her nationality to her child only where the father is unknown and the child was born in and has resided in Nepal. Children born to Nepalese mothers and foreign fathers can apply to acquire citizenship through naturalization, provided they have permanent domicile in Nepal and have not acquired the foreign citizenship of their fathers. Americas The nationality laws of two States in the Caribbean do not allow women to confer nationality on their children on the same terms as fathers. In The Bahamas, the nationality law provides that children born in the country to either a Bahamian father or mother acquire Bahamian nationality; however, children born abroad acquire nationality only through Bahamian fathers, not mothers. Under the nationality law of Barbados, all children born in the country acquire Barbadian nationality at the date of their birth but Barbadian mothers cannot confer nationality on their children born abroad, whereas Barbadian fathers can. U N H C R > B A C K G R O U N D N O T E O N G E N D E R E Q U A L I T Y, N AT I O N A L I T Y L A W S A N D S TAT E L E S S N E S S 2 0 2 0 11