Nationality in Guinea is governed by the Code civil of 2019. The reforms of 2019 eliminated discrimination based on sex in the transmission of Guinean nationality to children and spouses. The Code also provides for automatic attribution of Guinean nationality to a child born in Guinea of one parent also born there, and to a child born in Guinea of parents who are unknown, stateless or of unknown nationality. A newborn child found in Guinea is presumed to be Guinean.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern in 2013 that only one third of births are registered; while in 2014 the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women regretted the continuing gender discrimination in nationality law.

The government of Guinea opened its borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees from the conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, when rebels from those conflicts attacked Guinean territory in 2000, the president made incited attacks on the refugee population, leading to grave human rights violations and expulsion of many refugees. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights later found the Guinean government in violation of the African Charter in relation to these events.