women’s inability to confer nationality on children and spouses on an equal basis with men in fact impacts Omani women’s freedom to choose a residence, due to the precarious status of spouses and children who may even lack the right to reside in the state due to the law’s discrimination against women. In such circumstances, Omani women are often posed the impossible choice of family separation or leaving their homeland. 6. Oman is not party to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Annex III - Previous recommendations to Oman 1. In Oman’s previous review during the 71st Session in 201641, the Committee noted its concern that: “The Law on Citizenship of 2014 places numerous conditions on an Omani mother married to a foreigner who wishes to pass her citizenship on to her children, a situation that could result in significant violations of her children’s rights. The Committee is also concerned about the lack of information concerning registration of the births of children born to migrant workers in the State party.” The Committee made the recommendation that: “the State Party amend its laws to grant Omani women equal rights to Omani men with regard to the transmission of their nationality to their children and that it provide adequate safeguards to ensure the conferral of citizenship on children who would otherwise be stateless. It also recommends that the State party strengthen efforts to ensure that all births in the State party are registered, including, in cooperation with the States concerned, those of children of migrant workers, and that it provide statistics so that this issue can be assessed in the next periodic report. It further recommends that the State party become party to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 2. The inability of children born to Omani women and noncitizen fathers to acquire their mother’s nationality in all but the rarest circumstances has also been raised by other human rights treaty bodies, through the Universal Periodic Review, and by UN agencies and civil society groups. a. The Committee on the Elimination of al Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has previously expressed its concern that Oman’s updated Nationality Law places strict conditions on an Omani mother married to a foreigner who wishes to transmit her nationality to her children. Concerns also relate to the discriminatory provisions in national legislation with regard to the naturalisation of foreign spouses of Omani women, who are currently required to be married for at least 15 years in order to obtain Omani citizenship, while a foreign wife requires only 10 years of marriage. CEDAW recommended that Oman amend the Nationality Law to ensure equality between women and men with regard to the acquisition, change and retention of nationality and to enable Omani women to transmit their nationality to their foreign spouses and their children on an equal basis with men. It also recommended that Oman consider acceding to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of 41 CRC/C/OMN/CO/3-4, 14 March 2016, para 33-34, Available at: https://undocs.org/CRC/C/OMN/CO/3-4 10