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.
The Supreme Court of Sudan reaffirmed the right Sudanese women to confer nationality on their children in a July 6 decision. This important advancement for gender equal nationality rights underscores the need for the country’s Nationality Act to be aligned…
The Sudanese Supreme Court decided on Thursday that Sudanese nationality, which was withdrawn after the secession of South Sudan, must be restored to South Sudanese citizen Adel Burai Ramadan. The court ordered the Ministry of Interior to expedite the process…
The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights joyfully welcomes the passage of Sierra Leone’s amended Citizenship Act, which now guarantees women and men the equal right to confer nationality on children. With this critical reform, only 25 countries remain worldwide…
The Parliament of Sierra Leone on Wednesday 5th July 2017 amended the bill entitled “The Citizenship Amendment Act 2017”. The bill amends the Citizenship Act of 1973 to take into consideration the amendment made to the Citizenship Act in 2006…
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…
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…
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…