impact on all children, such as those related to inheritance and polygamy. The Committee encourages the State party to consider the development of a Children’s Code covering all areas of the Convention and to ensure that the necessary human, financial and technical resources are effectively allocated for the implementation of child-related legislation. (Committee on the Rights of Children)9. Morocco’s International obligations 10. Morocco has international obligations to protect the right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex, the right to a nationality and the rights of stateless persons on the basis of other UN and regional treaties to which it is a party. These include, among others, 10 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see articles 2 and 24.3), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (see articles. 2.2 and article 3), the Convention of the Rights of the Child (see articles 2, 3, 7 and 8), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (see article 9 in particular as well as articles 2, 15, and 16), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (see article 5(d)(iii)) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (see article 18). 11. Other relevant regional declarations include the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, supported by the Arab League Secretariat in 2018. This Declaration urges all Arab League Member States to uphold women and men’s equal right to confer nationality on their children and spouse and to remove reservations to CEDAW Article 9. The Declaration also calls for action to ensure universal birth registration and legal provisions to combat childhood statelessness. Gender Discrimination in Morocco’s Nationality Law 12. Though the Constitution of Morocco enshrines equality for women and men, Morocco’s Nationality Code (amended 2007) denies Moroccan women the right to confer their nationality on their noncitizen spouse on an equal basis with Moroccan men (art. 10). After five years of residence in Morocco, the spouse of a Moroccan man can acquire Moroccan nationality with an application to the Minister of Justice.11 The noncitizen spouse of a Moroccan woman may apply for naturalization, according to the general terms of naturalization and without preferential treatment on the basis of marriage, after legally residing in the country for five years. The naturalization procedure is complex and can remain pending without success for years. This situation causes major disadvantages for affected families, as the foreign husband is subject to the conditions established for foreigners staying in the country, which limits their ability to reside in the territory and their right to work, in addition to other limitations affecting foreigners. 13. Moreover, Article 19 of the Code introduces a new discrimination by providing that “Moroccan women who marry a foreigner and acquire, as a result of their marriage, the nationality of the husband and have been authorised by decree prior to the conclusion of the marriage, to renounce their Moroccan nationality, shall lose their Moroccan nationality.” 14. Gender discrimination in Morocco’s nationality law denies women equality under the law, as 9 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of Morocco, CRC/C/MAR/CO/3-4, (14 October 2014), para. 11. 10 See: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx?clang=_en. 11 Code de la Nationalité Marocaine (version consolidée en date du 26 octobre 2011 http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/501fc9822.pdf / In Arabic http://www.ism.ma/basic/web/ARABE/Textesdeloiarabe/LoiNation/LoiNation.pdf 4