Laws that render a woman’s citizenship dependent on that of her husband place her at risk of statelessness in additional ways. For example, when her husband loses his citizenship, changes his nationality or becomes stateless – or when the marriage ends in divorce or separation – the woman may also lose her nationality, absent appropriate safeguards.42 Model nationality laws that reflect the international norm of non-discrimination and help to avert statelessness share the following features: 1. Their provisions apply equally to women and men without discrimination of any kind; they allow women to transfer their nationality to their spouses, for instance, on an equal basis as men.43 2. They allow each spouse to choose whether any change in personal status impacts his or her nationality, as opposed to automatic loss of nationality as a result of a change in marital status, for instance.44 3. They make any loss of nationality resulting from changes in personal status conditional upon possession or acquisition of another nationality. 4. They establish naturalization requirements that are equally accessible to women and men.45 The post-2005 reforms to the nationality law in Algeria provide an example of positive reform. In response to a sustained campaign led by women, the country’s president issued a decree, later confirmed by parliament, allowing women to transfer Algerian citizenship to their foreign spouses. The new gender-neutral provision of the Algerian Nationality Code reads: “La nationalité algérienne peut s’acquérir par le mariage avec un algérien ou avec une algérienne, par décret dans les conditions suivantes…” (unofficial translation: “Algerian nationality can be acquired by decree through marriage to an Algerian man or woman, under the following conditions…”).46 Another movement towards gender equality in nationality laws occurred in Senegal. In June 2013, the Senegalese Parliament amended previously discriminatory legislation to establish the right of Senegalese women, on the same basis as men, to transfer their nationality to their foreign spouses. Article 7 of the Nationality Code now provides: “L’étranger qui épouse une sénégalaise ou l’étrangère qui épouse un sénégalais acquiert, à sa demande, la nationalité sénégalaise après cinq ans de vie commune à compter de la célébration ou de la constatation du mariage...” (unofficial translation: “The foreigner who marries a Senegalese woman or man acquires, upon application, the Senegalese nationality after five years of conjugal life counting from the day of celebration or recognition of the marriage…”).47 42 43 44 45 46 Ibid., para. 60. Ibid., para. 54, 62. Ibid., para. 63. Ibid., para. 62. Algérie: Ordonnance nº 70-86 du 15 décembre 1970 portant code de la nationalité algérienne modifiée et complétée par Ordonnance nº 05-01 du 27 février 2005, Art. 9, available at: https://droit.mjustice.dz/code_nation_alger.pdf. 47 Loi 2013-05 dated 8 july 2013 portant modification de la loi nº 61-10 du 7 mars 1961 déterminant la nationalité, 8 July 2013, available at: www.refworld.org/docid/51ed5ef14.html. 18