Feminist Foresight in Statelessness in Assam, citizens are being defined in opposition to a certain ethnicity or religious belief. 118 Secondly, interpreting the early campaigners’ steadfast commitment to equality can be a source of inspiration for today’s GDNL campaigns. Nationality laws that prevent a woman from passing on her nationality to her child arguably receive more attention by statelessness actors or international organisations today than the laws that discriminate against a woman in her right to acquire, change or retain her nationality. 119 Understandably, statelessness is more of an immediate risk in countries where children cannot acquire their mother’s nationality, and the necessity for campaigns on the issue is unquestionable. Also, given the fact that the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty, 120 canvassing against this form of GDNL may be easier. However, 1930s campaigners did not give up their fight when safeguards against statelessness were drawn up, but instead, stuck to the principle of equality. This raises the question of whether GDNL campaigns today should also place their emphasis on women’s equality as the overarching need for law reform. In fighting, first and foremost, for equal nationality laws between men and women, it is arguable that campaigns to eradicate GDNL 100 years ago were less conservative in their demands than some of the campaigns today. Furthermore, it is worth considering if the grouping of ‘women and children’ in today’s campaigns against GDNL is problematic. 121 Does grouping women’s and children’s rights together reproduce the infantilisation of women? And, to use the phrasing of the 1931 Women’s Consultative Committee on Nationality, does this focus ‘refuse [women] adult status’ in their own right? 122 One of the key lessons to take from the early campaigners is the value of collaboration. Campaigners in the early 1900s overcame financial, logistical and linguistic barriers to meet at The Hague in 1930, launch international campaigns such as the telegram campaign in 1931, and to collate an 84-country report on nationality laws. This is to say nothing of the equality treaties and conventions that the campaigners drew up and lobbied for in the face of relentless opposition. Collaboration in the form of international support also reached the activists: Distinguished editors, men and women of letters, jurists, and feminists from all over the world have sent encouragement, congratulations and approval. The responses range from India to Greece, and from Canada to the Argentine. 123 118 See, eg, Nyi Nyi Kyaw, ‘Unpacking the Presumed Statelessness of Rohingyas’ (2017) 15(3) 119 120 121 122 123 Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies 269, 269–86; Bilal Kuchay, ‘What You Should Know about India’s “Anti-Muslim” Citizenship Law’, Al Jazeera (online, 16 December 2019) <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/india-anti-muslim-citizenship-bill191209095557419>. Cf Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014–2024 (Report, UNHCR 2014) 15. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Information Booklet, Children’s Rights Alliance June 2010) 1; ‘UN Lauds Somalia as Country Ratifies Landmark Children’s Rights Treaty’, UN News (Web Page, 20 January 2015) <https://news.un.org/en/story/2015/01/488692-un-lauds-somalia-country-ratifies-landmarkchildrens-rightstreaty#:~:text=The%20CRC%20was%20adopted%20by,human%20rights%20treaty%20in %20history>. Cf Cynthia Enloe, ‘“Womenandchildren”: Propaganda Tools of Patriarchy’ in Greg Bates (ed), Mobilizing Democracy: Changing the US Role in the Middle East (Common Courage Press 1991) 29–32; Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, World Conference on Statelessness (Report, 2019) 11–15. Guerry (n 7) 85. Lee (n 7) 228. 59