The #IBelong Campaign to End
Statelessness
UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness in 10 years, launched in November
2014, envisages the achievement of gender equality in all nationality laws by the
year 2024 as part of the Campaign’s broader goals. A practical strategy through
which this can be achieved is set out in Action 3 of the Global Action Plan. The
objective of achieving gender equality in nationality laws is also supported by Goal 5
of the Sustainable Development Goals.10 UNHCR continues its work with a range of
governments and civil society groups to promote reform to nationality laws and assist in
their implementation.
In 2017, Madagascar and Sierra Leone became the first countries since the launch of
the #IBelong Campaign to reform their nationality laws to allow mothers to confer their
nationality to their children on an equal basis as men.
In 2017, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also partially reformed its law to allow Emirati
women married to foreigners to confer their nationality to their children aged six years
and above, subject to a number of conditions. This adds to the existing circumstances in
which Emirati women can confer their nationality, for example where children are born in
the UAE and their fathers are unknown, stateless or where the paternal relationship has
not been substantiated. In 2019, Iran partially reformed its law to allow Iranian women to
submit an application to confer their nationality to their children wherever they are born.
The Government retains discretion as to whether to grant or deny conferral of nationality
requested in the application. While the reform still does not put mothers and fathers on
a fully equal footing with respect to their ability to confer nationality to their children, it
represents a significant incremental improvement.
The year 2019 marked the mid-point of the #IBelong Campaign. To commemorate this
occasion, UNHCR organized a High-Level Segment on Statelessness on 7 October 2019
as part of its annual Executive Committee Meeting. At this meeting, States and other
actors were invited to deliver pledges to address statelessness, including by
10
UNHCR, The Sustainable Development Goals and Addressing Statelessness, March 2017, available at:
https://www.refworld.org/docid/58b6e3364.html
U N H C R > B A C K G R O U N D N O T E O N G E N D E R E Q U A L I T Y, N AT I O N A L I T Y L A W S A N D S TAT E L E S S N E S S 2 0 2 0
5