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.
By Roger A. Agana Ghana’s Constitution grants men and women equal rights to pass citizenship to their children. In practice, thousands of Ghanaians still struggle to prove it. NewsGhana spoke with Cassadee Yan, author of “The Gendered Politics of Belonging: […]
On July 24, 2025, as part of Liberia’s 178th Independence Day celebrations, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Grand Master, admitted Eminent Emmanuel S. Wettee into the Humane Order of African Redemption with the rank of Knight Commander for leading the advocacy […]
By Jedi Ramalapa There is a quiet kind of violence that states are particularly good at. It does not arrive with spectacle. It comes through paperwork. Through silence. Through the slow, bureaucratic unmaking of a life. In 2018, that violence […]
Kenya’s digital identity ecosystem has been promoted as transformative, a manifestation of the kind of digital public infrastructure that should streamline services, secure personal data, and ensure every citizen can access the state through a unified digital identity, guaranteeing inclusion […]
Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 51st Session of the Universal Periodic Review 4th Cycle Apr-May 2026 Association des femmes chefs de Famille (AFCF), Equality Now, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and the Institute on […]
By Cassadee Yan Addis Abeba – More than two decades after Ethiopia pledged full gender equality in its nationality law, women continue to face barriers that men rarely encounter. From registering their children’s citizenship to retaining their nationality after marriage, […]
Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 51st Session of the Universal Periodic Review, 4th Cycle Apr-May 2026 Association des femmes chefs de Famille (AFCF), Equality Now, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and the Institute on […]
BY Prof Mike Ozekhome, SAN OFR, Ph.D Opinion INTRODUCTION In a candid interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Senior British Conservative politician of Nigerian descent Kemi Badenoch, offered a striking and controversial insight into the limitations of Nigerian citizenship […]
Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Chad CEDAW/C/TCD/CO/5 Extracts: Nationality 31. The Committee notes that the 2023 Constitution of Chad recognizes the equal right of women and men to confer their nationality to their children. However, it notes […]
By Gift ChapiOdekina, Abuja The House of Representatives on Thursday passed for second reading a bill seeking to return Nigeria to a parliamentary system of government. The bill is among 31 constitutional amendment bills that scaled second reading during plenary, […]
Hundreds take part in human rights festival at Constitutional Hill By Ihsaan Haffejee and Kimberly Mutandiro News | Johannesburg Hundreds of people joined the celebrations at the seventh Human Rights Festival at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg over the weekend. This […]
Since 2012, UNHCR has issued an annual background note on gender equality in nationality laws related to the conferral of nationality on children. Nationality laws that do not grant women equal rights with men to confer nationality on their children […]