Rights (ICESCR - articles. 2.2 and article 3), the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC - articles 2, 3, 7 and 8), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW - article 9), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD - article 5(d)(iii)), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD - article 18), and the International Convention for the Protection of All persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED - article 25). Furthermore, the right to a nationality is protected under Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. 10. On the basis of the Article 9 of the CEDAW, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women stated its concern that Malawi’s Citizenship Act still contained discriminatory provisions that are incompatible with the Treaty, and urged Malawi to “expeditiously revise the Citizenship Act to ensure that women and men enjoy equal rights to acquire, change, transfer and retain nationality and to introduce safeguards to ensure that children born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless are granted nationality.” The Committee also recommended that Malawi accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.2 11. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in accordance with the Articles 7 and 8 of the ICRC, stated its concern that “despite enacting in its Citizenship Act a provision that guarantees that children born on its territory who would otherwise be stateless have the right to nationality, there are still cases where children born outside of Malawi or born to a non-Malawian father are at risk of being stateless”. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommended Malawi to scale-up its efforts on birth registration, and to “consider ratifying […] the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and bring its national legislation in line with these international instruments”. 3 Women’s inability to confer nationality on non-national spouses on an equal basis with men can also negatively impact the child’s right to know and be cared for by each of their parents, with the obstacles confronted by nonMalawian fathers who cannot access nationality through marriage. 12. Malawi also has relevant regional obligations, including through ratification of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which provides for the right to a name and nationality for every child in its Article 6. Malawi has also ratified the Maputo Protocol, which calls on States Party to eliminate gender discrimination in law in Article 2, stating: Article 2 (1): States Parties shall combat all forms of discrimination against women through appropriate legislative, institutional and other measures. …. d) take corrective and positive action in those areas where discrimination against women in law and in fact continues to exist; National Law 13. Malawi’s 1994 Constitution provides that every child has the right to a nationality, and that citizenship shall not be arbitrarily deprived or denied. Malawi’s nationality legislation is regulated by the 1966 Citizenship Act, as amended in 2018. 2 CEDAW, Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of Malawi (2015), CEDAW/C/MWI/CO/7, CRC, Concluding observations on the combined third, fourth and fifth reports of Malawi (2017), CRC/C/MWI/CO/3-5. 3 3