Gender Discrimination in Qatar’s nationality laws 6. According to Qatar’s Nationality Act No. 38 of 2005, a Qatari woman cannot confer nationality on her children under any circumstances, while Qatari men automatically confer nationality on their children whether they are born abroad or in the country. Article 1.4 of the law states, “Any person born in Qatar or in a foreign country to a Qatari father in accordance with the preceding Articles.” In addition, Qatari women have no opportunity to confer nationality on their foreign spouses, and their naturalization procedures are not facilitated.7 7. Such gender discrimination in the nationality law results in a range of other human rights violations, impacting children, women and their foreign male spouses. These include, the denial of the right to a nationality and resultant statelessness; lack of access to public education, healthcare and other services; increased risk of gender-based violence and impeded family reunification.8 Stateless communities and risks of statelessness in Qatar 8. Current UNHCR statistics indicate that as of the end of 2018, there were 1,200 stateless persons in Qatar. This number has not changed since 2008, and no further information is provided about the composition of this figure or how it was derived.9 Two groups in Qatar are at particular risk of statelessness; the Bidoon (for Bidoon jinsiya, or “without nationality”) and the Al Murra. The Bidoon 9. The Bidoon are mostly descendants of nomadic groups in the Arabian Peninsula who are stateless because they failed to be registered as citizens at the time of Qatar’s state formation in 1971. This may have been because they did not know about the registration procedure, did not understand its importance and/or were travelling during the registration period. In the country today, the Bidoon are considered "illegal residents".10 These Bidoon cannot access naturalization procedures, neither do they have any nationality claims in other countries. The Qatari authority have made no attempts recently to resolve their statelessness, or ensure that their access to rights in the country are protected. Members of the Al Murra Tribe 10. On 1 October 2004, Qatar’s Ministry of Interior reportedly issued an administrative decree resulting in the revocation of nationality to 5,266 people on account of having a second nationality, often falsely so. A similar event happened in 1996. All of those involved were from the al-Ghufran clan, a branch of the Al Murra tribe.11 7 The article states: “The wife of a naturalized person may be, by an Emiri decision, granted Qatari nationality by virtue of her husband, provided that her stay with him in Qatar extends for a period of at least five years from the date her husband acquired Qatari nationality”. See an English translation of the entire law at: http://www.almeezan.qa/LawView.aspx?opt&LawID=2591&language=en. 8 Equality Now, Campaign to End Sex Discrimination in Nationality and Citizenship Laws, 2013 (updated May 2014, Feb. 2015), available at http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/NationalityReport_EN.pdf. 9 Navigate UNHCR’s website relating to people of concern, at:http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/persons_of_concern. 10 Human Rights Watch, Qatar Country Profile, 2013, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/qatar. 11 The 18 May 2005 article by William Wallis, “Citizenship ordeal casts spotlight on Qatar's human rights record: The plight of members of the al-Ghfran [saic] clan, a sub-set of one of the Gulf state's largest tribes, is drawing international attention” is an excellent overview of the plight of the al-Ghufran. 2