Annex. Equal rights to a nationality in international law The international community recognized the importance of the right to a nationality as early as the 1930s. The 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws already recognized that the right of every person to a nationality was in the general interest of the international community. In 1933, the Montevideo Convention on the Nationality of Women called on states to end distinctions based on sex in nationality laws. Following the forced displacements and mass denationalizations that occurred during World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, gave formal recognition to the right to a nationality, which led to the inclusion of the right in international and regional treaty law. The UDHR provides, “Everyone has the right to a nationality; No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights did not incorporate the right of everyone to nationality as stated in the UDHR but recognized the right of every child to a nationality. Similarly, the right of a child to acquire a nationality is included in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 7(1) provides, “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality […].” Other international and regional legal instruments have guaranteed the right of a child to a nationality, including the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Among regional instruments, the American Convention on Human Rights recognizes the principle of jus soli in the acquisition of nationality. Article 20 provides that: 1. Every person has the right to a nationality; 2. Every person has the right to the nationality of the state in whose territory he was born if he does not have the right to any other nationality; and 3. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality or of the right to change it. The more specific issue of discrimination against women in nationality laws was addressed very early by the international community. The 1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women provided that each contracting state agrees that neither the celebration nor the dissolution of marriage between one of its nationals and an alien, nor the change of nationality by the husband during marriage, shall automatically affect the nationality of the wife. In 1979, CEDAW expanded on the principle of independent nationality of married women, by providing, in Article 9, that: 1. States parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change, or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by 25