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.
Libyan women’s rights campaigners have angrily taken to Twitter after the committee responsible for their country’s new constitution backtracked on a major issue. While a previous draft of Libya’s long-awaited constitution had allowed women to pass on their nationality to their…
Par Kayi Lawson La loi sur la nationalité en vigueur au Togo date de 1978. Le Code de la nationalité devrait être actualisé au lendemain du vote de la constitution de 1992 mais 25 ans après, la révision de la…
This February the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights convened a national workshop on Achieving Gender Equal Nationality Rights in Togo, in partnership with national coalition member Questions des Femmes and Campaign steering committee member Equality now. The workshop brought…
Les 7 et 8 février dernier, un atelier de formation sur l’égalité du droit à la nationalité au Togo a rassemblé des acteurs de la société civile, des ministères, des magistrats et des médecins. En effet, la législation togolaise comporte…
Pour certains d’entre nous, avoir un passeport va de soi parce que la nationalité nous a été attribuée à notre naissance sans problème ni procédure particulière. On ne se pose pas forcément la question de la difficulté éprouvée par certains…
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ariane Rummery – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. UNHCR welcomes a recent amendment to the…
Exposé des motifs: “la présente loi a pour but d’apporter des reformes à certaines dispositions du Code de la nationalité malagasy et de corriger les dispositions tendant à faire une distinction de l’état matrimonial de la femme conduisant ainsi à…
By Nasredeen Abdulbari* The secession of South Sudan from Sudan in July 2011 was followed by amendments to the Sudanese citizenship law removing citizenship from those with entitlement to South Sudanese citizenship. These changes have, unsurprisingly, led to the emergence…
A law drafted by the parliament’s legislative committee is currently barred from discussion upon request of government Egypt’s House of Representative gave the government a 14-day ultimatum to finish drafting a new Equal Citizenship Law, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported on…
By Nasredeen Abdulbari Volume 4 Issue 1, November 2016 Incompatibilities between national laws, on the one hand, and international law, human rights rules and principles of citizenship with regard to women, their children (who are born to a foreign father)…