Citizenship in Guinea-Bissau is controlled by Lei no.2/1992 as amended by Lei No.6/2010. and regulated by Decreto-Lei No.6/2011. The 2010 amendments provided for the attribution of nationality to a child born in Guinea Bissau who would otherwise be stateless, offered stronger protections against loss of Guinean nationality and permitted dual nationality for the first time. In addition, Lei No.7/2008 provides that a person born in Guinea Bissau of parents who both come from another lusophone country is attributed Bissauan nationality at birth. Guinea-Bissau has provided equal rights to men and women in transmission of nationality since it gained independence in 1976.
In 2016, the Government acceded to the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954) and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961). In 2018, Guinea Bissau adopted a decree providing for the grant of nationality to approximately 10,000 long-term refugees resident in the country. In addition, a National Plan of Action (NAP) for the Eradication of Statelessness was elaborated and approved by the Minister of Justice and Human Rights in November 2018.
In 2013, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed grave concern that the rate of birth registration had fallen from 2006 to 2010, and stood at only one quarter of births, and recommended law reform and other measures to reduce the risk of statelessness.