Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa it should exceptionally provide for the possibility of jus soli acquisition of nationality in those few instances that a child would otherwise be left without any nationality.117 Turning to the content of MENA states’ nationality laws, the picture is very mixed in terms of the incorporation of such safeguards for children who would otherwise be stateless. On the one hand, the region’s strong jus sanguinis tradition means that, in many cases, nationality will be transmitted into perpetuity for successive generations, even if the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in question are born (all) outside the territory of the state. Nevertheless, this picture is tainted by the fact that so many MENA states, as already outlined above, restrict their jus sanguinis rules to the paternal bloodline only. It is true that of those states which generally only allow fathers to transmit their nationality, several have included a special clause that is directed towards the avoidance of statelessness, allowing women to transmit their nationality if the father of their child is stateless himself (and therefore, by definition, has no nationality to offer). Yet such safeguards are shortsighted in their focus on the statelessness of the father, 117 - See also the detailed safeguards against childhood statelessness elaborated in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, in particular articles 1 and 4. Note that, at the time of writing, only Libya and Tunisia were state parties to this international instrument. 92