Equal Citizens, Thriving Families, Stronger Societies: Realizing Gender-Equal Nationality Rights in the Middle East-North Africa Region ALGERIA 1 Following Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, the country’s Nationality Code was enacted in 1963. Like most former colonies, the law was based on the nationality law of the former colonial power, and retained gender inequality that was embedded in the French Nationality Code. Algerian men could confer their nationality on children in all circumstances, and also retained the right to confer nationality on foreign spouses. The law denied women citizens the right to confer nationality by descent, unless their child’s father was unknown or stateless. Based on the principle of jus soli, or birth in the state territory, children born in Algeria to Algerian mothers and foreign fathers who were themselves born in Algeria acquired nationality at birth. Children born abroad of Algerian women and foreign fathers could apply to acquire nationality before reaching majority, if they resided in Algeria and obtained the approval of the Minister of Justice. In the decades prior to the establishment of equal nationality rights for women and men, activists emphasized the Nationality Code’s incompatibility with the Constitution, which mandated the equality of all citizens without discrimination on the basis of sex. They also highlighted the serious negative impacts of the law on the families of Algerian women, especially children. In addition to other hardships and rights violations, these children suffered from their inability to access social services, educational opportunities, and employment in a number of sectors, including the civil service, a major sector for employment in the country. Many children, who could not access their father’s nationality for a variety of reasons, were rendered stateless, resulting in even greater violations of their fundamental rights, including freedom of movement. Though Algeria became a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women iñaki do campo gan/ Algiers, Algeria (CEDAW) in 1996, it entered a reservation to Article 9(2), which calls on all States Party to ensure the equal right of women and men to confer nationality on children. In Algeria’s first review by the CEDAW Committee in 1999, the Committee recommended that the country reform its nationality law, to bring it in line with the CEDAW. Then, in 2003, a major movement was launched, named “20 ans barakat”, with the goal of bringing the country’s laws in line with the Constitutional requirement for equality. Realizing For more information on good practices on removing gender discrimination from nationality laws, see UNHCR Good Practices Paper - Action 3: Removing Gender Discrimination from Nationality Laws, 6 March 2015, available at: http://www.refworld.org/ docid/54f8377d4.html 1 4