Senegal Senegal’s 1961 Nationality Code only allowed Senegalese mothers to confer their nationality on children born of stateless fathers or those of unknown nationality. The Code also contained complicated provisions distinguishing between children born in and out of wedlock. These provisions remained in place when Senegal became a party to CEDAW and later to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. In December 2011, at the UNHCR Ministerial Meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Statelessness Convention, the Government of Senegal pledged to reform its nationality law to grant Senegalese women equal rights as men in their ability to confer nationality on their children. The Senegalese Government had already demonstrated a commitment to women’s equality and empowerment. For example, the Parliament passed a gender parity law in 2010 requiring that women comprise 50 per cent of candidates presented by all political parties in local and national elections. In 2012, the Ministry of Justice assumed leadership in implementing the Government’s pledge to eradicate gender discrimination in its nationality law. It formed a Task Force made up of representatives from the Presidency, as well as the ministries of Justice, the Interior and Foreign Affairs. The Task Force completed a draft bill to reform the Nationality Code in August 2012. It then embarked on a consultative process to review the bill. UNHCR provided observations and suggestions on the draft. In October 2012, the Ministry of Justice convened a high-level day of reflection to review the bill. Twenty members of the National Assembly were invited to take part in the discussions to pave the way for parliamentary review and approval of the bill. Women’s groups, civil-society representatives, government officials and experts from the international community also contributed to these deliberations. The Government took several recommendations and observations emanating from the day of reflection into account in revising the bill it submitted to the National Assembly. The revised bill not only eliminated genderdiscriminatory provisions, it also eliminated distinctions between children born in or out of wedlock with regard to their right to nationality, besides other changes to help prevent statelessness. The bill was passed unanimously by the National Assembly on 28 June 2013 without debate and was promulgated by the President on 8 July 2013. The new provision established that any child born as a direct descendant of a Senegalese national is Senegalese. Several factors contributed to parliamentary support for the bill. For one, the gender-parity law saw to it that the July 2012 legislative elections ushered in a record 65 women into the 150-seat National Assembly. Furthermore, Parliament was led by a coalition of parties that supported the Government’s gender-equality platform. Senegalese women’s groups and civil society played an important advocacy role throughout the nationality law reform process. Even Senegalese women in the diaspora played their part, pressing the Government for nationality law reform on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2012 in New York. According to a representative of UN Women, the reformed nationality code could allow up to 2 million Senegalese women to confer their Senegalese nationality to their children.8 8 5 Please see Diaspora En Ligne, Réforme du Code de la nationalité, un signe de la volonté d’en finir avec les discriminations, available at : http://goo.gl/v18dWs CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS