BACKGROUND NOTE ON GENDER EQUALITY, NATIONALITY LAWS AND STATELESSNESS 2019 In November 2018 the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons adopted a 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 draft Protocol will next be reviewed by the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Legal Affairs, prior to its adoption and ratification by African Union Member States. In 2017, Madagascar and Sierra Leone became the first countries since the launch of UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness to reform their nationality laws to allow mothers to confer their nationality to their children on an equal basis as men. In Madagascar, although the reform does not permit Malagasy women to confer their nationality on their non-national spouses (as Malagasy men can), it does allow both spouses and children to retain their nationality if a partner or a parent loses theirs. In Sierra Leone, prior to the 2017 reform, Sierra Leonean women were denied the right to confer nationality on their children born abroad (unlike Sierra Leonean men). Other States have recently initiated discussions to reform their nationality laws. For example, reviews of the Aliens and Nationality Law in Liberia and of the Code de la Nationalité in Togo are underway to bring them in line with their countries’ respective Constitutions which provide for equality between women and men in their ability to confer their nationality on their children. In Somalia, once enacted, a newly drafted Citizenship Bill will abolish discriminatory provisions and, inter alia, permit Somali women to confer nationality to their children on an equal basis as Somali men. The Parliaments of Bahrain, Kuwait and Iran are currently examining proposals to review their respective nationality laws and consider reforms that would allow women to confer citizenship on their children at birth. The #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness in 10 years envisages the achievement of gender equality in all nationality laws by the year 2024 as part of the Campaign’s broader goals, and sets out a practical strategy through which this can be achieved 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. 10 10 UNHCR, The Sustainable Development Goals and Addressing Statelessness, March 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58b6e3364.html UNHCR | 8 March 2019 5