residence. Nationality should be capable of change by an adult woman and should not be arbitrarily removed because of marriage or dissolution of marriage or because her husband or father changes his nationality.1 Additionally, as stated by the CEDAW, Article 9 among others is “central to the object and purpose of the Convention and that the reservations impact negatively on the enjoyment by women of their rights.” Therefore, the maintenance of nationality laws which discriminate on the basis of gender are themselves in conflict with the object and purpose of the CEDAW and with the general obligation of all state parties to “agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women.”2 Gender Discrimination in Qatar’s nationality laws According to Qatar’s Nationality Act No. 38 of 2005, a Qatari woman cannot confer nationality on her children under any circumstances, while Qatari men automatically confer nationality on their children whether they are born abroad or in the country. Article 1.4 of the law states, “Any person born in Qatar or in a foreign country to a Qatari father in accordance with the preceding Articles.” Article 2 of the nationality law grants priority for naturalisation to persons whose mother is Qatari, however this process remains discriminatory and discretionary. In addition, Qatari women have no opportunity to confer nationality on their foreign spouses, and their naturalisation procedures are not facilitated. Under Article 5 of the 2005 Nationality Act, wives of Qatari men however – whether Qatari by birth or naturalized - benefit from facilitated naturalisation.3 These provisions render the Qatari nationality law the most restrictive and discriminatory towards women in the world. While 24 other countries discriminate against women in their ability to pass on nationality to their children, none of these countries have a blanket prohibition in place. The clear discriminatory nature of the law, in contravention of international standards, is detrimental to the legal status of women in the country, as well as being contrary to the Qatari constitution. Its Article 35 states that “All persons are equal before the law and there shall be no discrimination whatsoever on grounds of sex, race, language, or religion.”4 Secondly, such gender discrimination in the nationality law results in a range of other human rights violations, impacting children, women and their foreign male spouses. These include, the denial of the right to a nationality and resultant statelessness; lack of access to See: General Recommendation No. 21 (13th session, 1994), accessible at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/recomm.htm 2 Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Eighteenth and nineteenth sessions), A/53/38/Rev.1, page 47 3 The article states: “The wife of a naturalized person may be, by an Emiri decision, granted Qatari nationality by virtue of her husband, provided that her stay with him in Qatar extends for a period of at least five years from the date her husband acquired Qatari nationality”. See an English translation of the entire law at: http://www.almeezan.qa/LawView.aspx?opt&LawID=2591&language=en 4 See the relevant article at: http://www.almeezan.qa/LawArticles.aspx?LawTreeSectionID=6677&lawId=2284&language=ar 1 2