recommendations made to them include Barbados, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Egypt, Iraq, Malaysia, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Tunisia. Of these States, Sierra Leone and Tunisia have removed gender discriminatory provisions in their nationality laws in the time since the relevant UPR recommendations were made. The #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness in 10 years, launched in November 2014, envisages the achievement of gender equality in all nationality laws by the year 2024 as part of the Campaign’s broader goals. A practical strategy through which this can be achieved is set out in Action 3 of the Global Action Plan. The objective of achieving gender equality in nationality laws is also supported by Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals.11 UNHCR continues its work with a range of governments and civil society groups to promote reform to nationality laws and assist in their implementation. In 2017, Madagascar and Sierra Leone became the first countries since the launch of the #IBelong Campaign to reform their nationality laws to allow mothers to confer their nationality to their children on an equal basis as men. In 2017, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) partially reformed its law to allow Emirati women married to foreigners to confer their nationality to their children aged six years and above, subject to a number of conditions. This adds to the existing circumstances in which Emirati women can confer their nationality, for example where children are born in the UAE and their fathers are unknown, stateless or where the paternal relationship has not been substantiated. In 2019, Iran partially reformed its law to allow Iranian women to submit an application to confer their nationality to their children wherever they are born. The Government retains discretion as to whether to grant or deny conferral of nationality requested in the application. While the reform does not put mothers and fathers on a fully equal footing with respect to their ability to confer nationality to their children, it represents a significant incremental improvement. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Government of Iran announced that 10,000 citizenship applications concerning newly eligible children have so far been approved and that it had begun issuing identity documents to these children. As of November 2021, 1,400 children born to Iranian mothers have acquired Iranian nationality and it is estimated that nearly 75,000 children are eligible for Iranian citizenship under the new citizenship law. In a landmark decision 11 UNHCR, The Sustainable Development Goals and Addressing Statelessness, March 2017, available at: https://www. refworld.org/docid/58b6e3364.html 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 5