15. Burundi’s Nationality Code is thus in violation of the 2005 Constitution as well as Burundi’s obligations under the CEDAW, CRC and ICCPR. Gender Discrimination in Nationality Laws 16. This law, which denies women equality with men in terms of nationality, in principle makes women unequal citizens and in practise can make the children of women who cannot pass on their nationality stateless. These children will face hardships throughout their life, as without nationality it is more difficult to access primary education, grants for higher education, healthcare, the formal labour market, voting rights, travel documents, justice, and their mental and physical health is often severely impacted. As such, being denied the right to acquire a nationality at birth due to discrimination, is a flagrant violation of human rights law. 17. Because Burundi’s Nationality Law does not enshrine Burundian women’s right to confer nationality on children on an equal basis with men, children born of a Burundian woman and a non-national man are at a heightened risk of statelessness. In addition, Burundian women’s inability to confer nationality on their foreign spouses threatens a child’s right to preserve family relations, including the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. For example, when foreign men are denied access to their spouses’ nationality, they may be forced to live away from their children due to challenges in acquiring residency permits and obstacles to employment. Alternatively, a father may have to take any children away from the mother and back to his home country for a number of reasons, including if his employment and social status in Burundi is insecure because of his nationality status. 18. Burundi is one of 26 countries around the world that continues to discriminate against women in their ability to confer their nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. Given that gender discrimination in nationality laws contravenes international human rights law; is easily remedied through law reform; and continues to have significant detrimental human rights impacts including statelessness, the international community has come together to advocate for an end to this discrimination under the banner of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights. Furthermore, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees’ Global Campaign to end statelessness prioritises the removal of gender discrimination from nationality laws through its Action Point 3.8 19. Reviewing Burundi’s situation, On the 8th of April 2008, The CEDAW Committee made an explicit recommendation to Burundi to amend the law: “The Committee urges the State party to amend the Nationality Code so as to bring it into line with article 9 of the Convention.”9 8 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, 4 November 2014, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/545b47d64.html 9 UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Burundi, 8 April 2008, CEDAW/C/BDI/CO/4, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48e346b60.html [accessed 21 June 2017]