the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region signed a Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness6 and an accompanying Plan of Action7 which commits those States to ensuring that women and men have equal rights to acquire, change and retain their nationality and to confer their nationality on their children and spouses. In December 2018, Member States of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, endorsed the N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of Statelessness in Central Africa,8 under which they also commit to ensuring equal nationality rights for women and men to acquire, change, retain and transmit their nationality. In February 2018, the League of Arab States (LAS) presented the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity,9 which calls for gender equal nationality legislation in all LAS Member States. Work to develop an Action Plan to implement the Declaration is ongoing. In 2018, the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons reviewed the text of draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa, which enshrines equal nationality rights for women and men to acquire, change or retain their nationality and with respect to the nationality of their children. The next step will be a legal review of the text of the draft Protocol by the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, prior to adoption of the Protocol by the African Union Assembly and its opening for signature and ratification by African Union Member States. At the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in October 2019, the African Union Commission committed to submit the draft protocol for adoption to the African Union Assembly. The issue of gender discrimination in nationality laws has also received significant attention in recent years as part of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which involves a regular review of the human rights record of all 193 UN Member States. From 2008 to 2020, at least 60 recommendations were made concerning the removal of gender discriminatory provisions in the nationality laws of 21 States.10 Of these, 12 recommendations were ‘supported’ by the State concerned and 48 were ‘noted’. The States supporting the 6 Declaration of International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Member States on the Eradication of Statelessness, 16 October 2017, CIRGL/CIMR/DEC/15/10/2017, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/59e9cb8c4.html 7 Action Plan of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) On the Eradication of Statelessness 2017-2019, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a7c16aa4.html 8 N’Djamena Initiative on the Eradication of Statelessness in Central Africa, 12 December 2018, available at: https:// www.refworld.org/docid/5c2f3f8b4.html 9 League of Arab States, Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identiy, February 2018, available at: https://www. refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html 10 The number of recommendations is based on an analysis of relevant recommendations in the UPR Info database. The identified recommendations are tagged as relating to the issue ‘Statelessness and the right to nationality’ and contain language on the removal of gender discrimination in nationality laws. This number may not include all relevant recommendations to the extent they are labelled differently. 4 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 2