“Continue its efforts to adopt legislations to combat trafficking and protect women’s rights in particular nationality and gender equality”.10 13. Brazil recommended that Madagascar “Step up efforts directed at fighting discrimination based on gender, particularly in order to end discriminatory treatment affecting children born to a foreign father married to a Malagasy women”.11 14. Russian Federation recommended that Madagascar “Adopt additional measures to eliminate violence against women and children and ensure gender equality in society”.12 15. Rwanda recommended that Madagascar “Intensify efforts to ensure gender equality and eliminate sexual and gender-based violence, including through considering development of a National Action Plan and implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325”.13 16. Following the state’s acceptance of these recommendations, the government of Madagascar took important steps to achieve these commitments. In January 2016 the government promulgated a new nationality law, loi n°2016-038, that removed gender-discriminatory provisions regarding the conferral of nationality on the children of Malagasy citizens. Today Malagasy women and men have the equal right to confer nationality on their children. Importantly, the reform has retroactive application, meaning that families that suffered under the previous law can now benefit from the reform. By April 2018 —just a little over a year after the reform—1,361 families had already benefitted from the new law, which facilitates these citizens’ full participation in society and in the country’s development. 17. Unfortunately, the 2016 nationality law reform did not address gender-discriminatory provisions that deny Malagasy women the ability to confer nationality on a non-national spouse on an equal basis with Malagasy men. Madagascar’s International Obligations 18. Madagascar is a party to core human rights instruments, including: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). 19. Madagascar has not yet acceded to key international instruments which protect refugees, stateless persons and indigenous persons. For example, Madagascar is not a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) and its Protocol, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, among others. 10 Ibid. Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 11 3