outcome (Sumner 2015) (See section III.(b)3.2 for remedial reforms implemented by the Government of Indonesia). Regulatory barriers exist as well. For instance, in countries with low rates of birth registration, proof of birth from village elders, birth attendants, or witnesses is often used to obtain proof of identity. However, meeting these requirements may be more burdensome for a woman than a man. For example, in Burkina Faso, the voter registration exercise in 2010 required a birth certificate. However, to get a birth certificate, citizens must have two witnesses, such as their mother or a midwife, to vouch for their birth in the country. This regulation is more burdensome for women to comply with as, unlike men, women leave their birth villages when they marry. Going back to the village to find witnesses is costly and challenging for women who may not be able to travel alone or take time away from child care and domestic work. Indeed, this requirement resulted in overwhelmingly low voter registration.54 d) Barriers to acquiring nationality Nationality laws which do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality on their children can perpetuate a cycle of statelessness which has serious consequences, including the absence of a legal identity and non-enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.55 Statelessness is an increasing concern for the international community. It is an issue that implementors of ID programs must tackle, in accordance with nationality laws and international commitments, if are they are to be inclusive (Gelb and Metz 2017). UNHCR estimates that globally, at least 10 million people are stateless and over onethird of the world’s stateless are children (UNHCR 2014). Several countries prohibit or limit the rights of women to confer nationality on their children or a noncitizen spouse, a right that is almost universal for men (Theodorou 2014)56 and assured under Article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Just as discriminatory laws govern access to IDs, passports, and birth certificates, discriminatory nationality laws are deeply rooted in patriarchal social norms, with children born in marriage assumed to acquire the nationality of their father and married women that of their husband.57 Furthermore, the discriminatory laws and practices outlined in section II.(c) may lead to women and their children being unable to prove nationality, which is often a prerequisite for acquiring a national ID.58 The annex provides some background to the history of nationality rights under international law. Unmarried women cannot convey citizenship on their children in the same way as unmarried men in 18 countries, and married women cannot confer citizenship on their children in the same way as married men in 26 countries (table 2). In Brunei Darussalam,59 Kuwait,60 Lebanon,61 and Qatar,62 only the father can convey nationality on children. Other countries, including The Bahamas,63 Barbados,64 Kiribati,65 and Malaysia,66 prevent mothers from conveying their nationality on children born abroad. Others, such as Saudi Arabia, prevent women from conveying nationality on children born to an unknown father. When granting nationality, most countries apply rules that are primarily based on descent from a parent who is a citizen (Govil and Edwards 2014).67 Nationality laws based on paternal descent alone can cause statelessness if children cannot acquire the nationality of the father or a nationality based on their place of birth (UNHCR 2018). Such laws tend to render children stateless if (a) the father is stateless; (b) the father is unknown or not married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth; (c) the father’s country’s nationality laws do not permit him to confer nationality in certain circumstances, such as when the child is born abroad; or (d) the father has been unable or is unwilling to fulfil administrative steps to confer his nationality because, for example, he has died, has been forcibly separated from his family, or has abandoned the family.68 There are several examples of countries where a woman marrying a stateless person in her country of birth can risk statelessness for herself and her children. Brunei Darussalam,69 the Islamic Republic of Iran,70 8 ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ID: GENDER-BASED LEGAL BARRIERS AGAINST WOMEN AND GOOD PRACTICE REFORMS