In Togo, while the 1978 Nationality Law contains a safeguard to grant citizenship to children
born in its territory who cannot claim the nationality of another State, it only allows Togolese
mothers to confer their nationality on their children if the father is stateless or of unknown
nationality. This is contrary to Article 32 of the 1992 Constitution, which grants Togolese
nationality to children born to Togolese fathers or mothers.
In Sudan, the 1994 Nationality Act provides that children born outside the country before
the coming into force of the Act whose fathers were born in Sudan are Sudanese. The Act
furthermore provides that all children residing in Sudan at the coming into force of the Act,
whose ancestors from the father’s side were residing in Sudan since 1956, acquire Sudanese
nationality by descent. After 1994, the Act grants citizenship to children born to a father who
was a Sudanese national by descent. The law was amended in 2005 to allow a child born to
a Sudanese mother to acquire Sudanese nationality by birth by application. These provisions
from the 1994 Act are at variance with Article 7 of the Interim Sudanese Constitution that
guarantees that “every person born to a Sudanese mother or father shall have an inalienable
right to enjoy Sudanese nationality and citizenship.” After the creation of the independent State
of South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan amended its nationality law in 2011 and subsequently in
2018 but has yet to amend the relevant sections of the 1994 Act to ensure equal rights between
Sudanese women and men to confer their nationality to their children. The Interim Sudanese
Constitution remains in force until Sudan adopts a permanent constitution.
Asia
The nationality laws in five countries in Asia and the Pacific do not provide mothers equal rights
as fathers to confer their nationality on their children.
In Brunei Darussalam the nationality law does not permit national women to confer their
nationality to their children at all.
In Iran, with the 2019 reform to the nationality law, Iranian women married to non-Iranian men
can in principle apply to confer their nationality to their children regardless of where they are
born, with retroactive effect.
Under Kiribati’s nationality law, children born in the country to a Kiribati father or mother can
acquire the nationality of Kiribati; however, only children born abroad to Kiribati fathers, not
mothers, acquire the nationality of Kiribati.
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