A/HRC/23/23 have included some safeguards in their discriminatory nationality laws to prevent the creation of statelessness. For instance, some make exceptions to allow mothers to pass their nationality on to children born within their territories or, more exceptionally, abroad, if the father is stateless, of unknown nationality or unknown. In some countries, children born to national women and foreign fathers may apply to acquire citizenship if they reside in the country; this provision is, however, reportedly not often implemented in practice owing to the overly bureaucratic requirements.29 In other countries, even if the law is apparently gender-neutral, often, in practice, the children of national women and foreign men are not regarded as nationals.30 38. Women are also discriminated against in nationality-related matters, when different rules apply to children born in or outside of wedlock. In some countries, the nationality of children born out of wedlock or to a foreign mother living abroad is determined by that of the mother, to the exclusion of the father. Women in those circumstances may face many challenges in claiming support for their children. Since the children do not have the nationality of the father, the father’s State of origin might be reluctant to accept the mother’s claim for support.31 39. Women with disabilities, women belonging to ethnic or racial minorities, migrant women and imprisoned foreign women, among others, may face additional difficulties in transferring their nationality to their children, an issue that States also must address.32 40. Various human rights mechanisms, such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Council, including through the latter’s universal periodic review, regularly remind States of their obligation to ensure equal rights to men and women with regard to the nationality of their children, and urge them to amend discriminatory laws. 33 The Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice is also actively involved in promoting women’s equal right to transfer nationality to their children as part of its work on discrimination against women in political and public life. 34 41. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has noted that failure to amend discriminatory laws in this area cannot be justified by arguments based on diversity in culture or religion. 35 It has also explained that the prohibition of dual nationality cannot result in the nationality of children being determined by the father’s nationality alone.36 The consequences for children of not having a nationality on their enjoyment of 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 10 See contribution of Human Rights Watch. Manby, Citizenship Law in Africa (see footnote 10), p. 53. UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No.4 (see footnote 7), para. 15. See contributions of International Disability Alliance, Equality Now and Quakers. See also CEDAW/C/TGO/CO/5, CEDAW/C/BDI/CO/4, CEDAW/C/LBN/CO/3, CEDAW/C/SAU/CO/2, CEDAW/C/LBR/CO/6, CEDAW/C/YEM/CO/6, CEDAW/C/TUV/CO/2, CEDAW/C/KWT/CO/3-4, CEDAW/C/NPL/CO/4-5, CEDAW/C/OMN/CO/1, CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/5 2012; CRC/C/15/Add.219, CRC/C/SWZ/CO/1, CRC/C/MLI/CO/2, CRC/C/QAT/CO/2, CRC/C/MDG/CO/3-4; CCPR/C/IRN/CO/3; E/C.12/MCO/CO/1, E/C.12/MDG/CO/2; CCPR/C/KWT/CO/2; A/HRC/8/19 and A/HRC/10/75. See also A/HRC/20/28/Add.1. Freeman, Chinkin and Rudolf, The UN Convention (see footnote 2), p. 244. See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/56/38), para. 75.