At independence, most countries in Africa discriminated on the basis of gender in the rules on transmission of citizenship to children and spouses. In recent years, however, nationality laws have increasingly been reformed to reduce or remove gender discrimination.
A substantial majority of African countries now give men and women equal rights to transmit nationality to their children; and roughly half provide equal rights to transmit nationality to a spouse.
These reforms are in line with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which prohibits discrimination in nationality law on the basis of gender: all African countries except Sudan and Somalia are parties to this treaty.
Makhanda (Grahamstown) father desperate to keep his family together has won a landmark legal victory after a judge ruled that a law barring him from registering the birth of his child was unconstitutional. Liesl Muller, of Lawyers for Human Rights,…
Un projet de loi pourrait rendre cela possible. Par Leïla Hallaoui PROPOSITION DE LOI – Si la loi permet actuellement aux hommes marocains de transmettre leur nationalité à leurs épouses étrangères, pourquoi est-ce qu’elle en prive les femmes marocaines? Une…
L’artiste burkinabè Pam Luster appuie les efforts de l’UNHCR pour que le droit à la nationalité et à obtenir des papiers en règle soit une réalité. Un apatride est, selon la convention de New York du 28 septembre 1954, “toute…
Promulgué par le Président de la République Hery Rajaonarimampianina le 25 janvier 2017, le nouveau code de nationalité a été appliqué et a déjà bénéficié à des milliers de famille malgache. «Il est reconnu malagasy l’enfant né d’un père et/ou…
Morocco is working on new legislation enabling Moroccan women to pass nationality to their foreign spouses, said family minister Bassima Hakkaoui. “Borders should never deprive people from enjoying nationality rights,” Hakkaoui said in a recent statement to the press on…
Le Maroc travaille sur une loi en faveur des Marocaines mariées à des étrangers ONU – Bassima Hakkaoui, ministre de la Famille, de la Solidarité, de l’Egalité et du Développement social, intervient depuis quelques jours au siège de l’ONU à…
Nationality laws which do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality to their children are a cause of statelessness and a concern for UNHCR under its mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness. Since 2012, UNHCR has issued an…
By Catherine Harrington, Campaign Manager, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights Amid the tragedy and uncertainty of today’s global challenges, there have been several important developments in the fight for gender equality in the past year. Importantly, these wins do…
The Sudanese Council of Ministers passed a bill amending the Sudanese Nationality Law on Sunday. Under the chairmanship of First Vice-President and Prime Minister, Lt. Gen. Bakri Hasan Saleh, the Ministers approved the amendments for 2018. Under the new amendments,…
According to the report from the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), delivered to the President in January 2017, Section 75 and 76 of the 1991 Constitution should be replaced, to enable citizens by naturalization to hold Public Office and Elected offices,…