RES/32/7 The right to a nationality: women’s equal nationality rights in law and in practice

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Human Rights Council Thirty-second session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 30 June 2016

32/7. The right to a nationality: women’s equal nationality rights in law and in practice

The Human Rights Council,

Guided by the purposes, principles and provisions of the Charter of the United

Nations,

Guided also by article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according

to which everyone has the right to a nationality and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of

his or her nationality, and article 2 of the same Declaration, according to which everyone is

entitled to the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration without distinction of any

kind, including on the basis of sex,

Recalling its adoption of resolutions 13/2 of 24 March 2010 on arbitrary deprivation

of nationality, 20/4 of 5 July 2012 on the right to nationality, and 28/13 of 26 March 2015

on birth registration,

Bearing in mind the challenges still faced by all countries throughout the world to

achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls,

Noting the provisions of international and regional human rights instruments

recognizing the equal right to nationality, including article 9 of the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 18 of the Convention

on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and article 5 (d) (iii) of the International

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,

Taking into account the fact that article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of

All Forms of Discrimination against Women recognizes that women have equal rights with

men to acquire, change or retain their nationality and with respect to the nationality of their

children,

Noting that, in its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related

dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women seeks to ensure equality

between men and women in the ability to confer their nationality on their spouse,

Noting also the provisions of international and regional human rights and other

instruments recognizing the right of every child to acquire a nationality and specifying the

obligations of States parties to register every child immediately after birth, including

internally displaced, refugee and migrant children, inter alia, article 24, paragraphs 2 and 3

of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 7 of the Convention on

the Rights of the Child, and article 18, paragraph 1 (a) of the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities, and the role that birth registration plays in confirming nationality

and preventing statelessness,

Recalling that, following the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,

delegates from 189 countries pledged, based on the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform

for Action, to revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex,

Noting the pledge made in the political declaration of the fifty-ninth session of the

Commission on the Status of Women to take further concrete action to ensure the full,

effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for

Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General

Assembly, including through strengthened implementation of laws, policies, strategies and

programme activities for all women and girls, and the agreed conclusions of the

Commission on the Status of Women at its sixtieth session, in which it further urged States

to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls through the removal,

where they exist, of discriminatory provisions in legal frameworks, including punitive

provisions, and setting up legal, policy, administrative and other comprehensive measures,

including temporary special measures as appropriate, to ensure women’s and girls’ equal

and effective access to justice and accountability for violations of human rights of women

and girls,1

Welcoming the global 10-year campaign to end statelessness by 2024 of the Office

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which calls for the removal of

gender-based discrimination from nationality laws worldwide as a crucial step to

eradicating statelessness,

Welcoming also the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights by an

international coalition of organizations concerned by this issue,

Welcoming further the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,2

recalling that it includes targets on eliminating discrimination against all women and girls,

eliminating all discriminatory laws, policies and practices and providing a legal identity for

all, and recognizing that equal nationality rights for women can contribute to the

achievement of the 2030 Agenda,

Welcoming the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights on discrimination against women on nationality-related matters, including

the impact on children,3 as requested by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 20/4,

Welcoming also the recent actions taken by States to reform, or make a clear

commitment to reform, their nationality laws to grant equal nationality rights to women,

Noting recent regional initiatives to reform nationality laws that discriminate against

women and girls, such as the 2015 Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of Member States of

the Economic Community of West African States on the eradication of statelessness, the

1 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2016, Supplement No. 7 (E/2016/27), chap.

I, para. 23 (d).

2 General Assembly resolution 70/1.

3 A/HRC/23/23.

2014 Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action on strengthening the international protection of

refugees, displaced and stateless persons in Latin America and the Caribbean, and other

regional initiatives, including the resolution on legal identity for children, adopted in 2016

in Lusaka by the 134th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, the first conclusions on

statelessness adopted by the Council of the European Union in 2015, the African Union

initiative to develop a draft protocol on the right to a nationality in Africa, the seven-point

plan of action that resulted from the meeting of Parliamentarians held on 26 and 27

November 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa, which focused on the role of parliaments in

preventing and ending statelessness, and the Bali Declaration on People Smuggling,

Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, which underscored the importance

of regional and international cooperation,

Recognizing that discrimination against women and girls in nationality laws persists

in almost all regions of the world, and remains a significant cause of statelessness among

men, women and children,

Bearing in mind that discrimination against women and girls in nationality laws can

have far-reaching consequences for entire families, including lack of documentation, which

increases vulnerability to human rights abuses and violations, arbitrary arrest and detention,

inability to work and marry legally, lack of freedom of movement, the worst forms of child

labour, child, early and forced marriage, denial of property and land ownership, family

separation, diminished access to education and health care, economic hardship, human

trafficking and social and political marginalization,

Noting that, among displaced, migrant and refugee populations, gender inequality in

nationality laws may leave children born in woman-headed households, including those

headed by indigenous women, at risk of statelessness and may pose a barrier to children’s

eventual voluntary return to the country of their parents’ residence,

1. Reaffirms that the right to a nationality is a universal human right enshrined

in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that every man, woman and child has

the right to a nationality, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,

language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or

other status;

2. Recognizes that it is up to each State to determine by law who its nationals

are, provided that such determination is consistent with its obligations under international

law, including with respect to non-discrimination;

3. Calls upon all States to adopt and implement nationality legislation consistent

with their obligations under international law, including with respect to the elimination of

all forms of discrimination against women and girls in nationality-related matters, and with

a view to preventing and reducing statelessness;

4. Urges all States to refrain from enacting or maintaining discriminatory

nationality legislation with a view to avoiding statelessness and loss of nationality,

preventing vulnerability to human rights violations and abuses, decreasing the risk of

exploitation and abuse, and promoting gender equality in the acquisition, change, retention

or conferral of nationality;

5. Urges States to take immediate steps to reform nationality laws that

discriminate against women by granting equal rights to men and women to confer

nationality on their children and spouses and regarding the acquisition, change or retention

of their nationality;

6. Urges States that have reformed nationality laws to ensure the effective

implementation of the laws, including through awareness-raising and publicity, and gender-

sensitive training of public officials, including judges and local leaders, and targeted

outreach to civil society to engage relevant communities;

7. Urges States to ensure that men and women have equal access to documents

used to prove nationality, in particular passports, identity documents and birth, and where

relevant, marriage certificates;

8. Calls upon States to identify and remove physical, administrative, procedural

and any other barriers, especially those targeting women, that impede access to registration

of vital life events including birth, marriage and death registration, and including late

registration and associated fees, paying due attention to, among others, barriers relating to

poverty, age, disability, gender, nationality, displacement, illiteracy and detention contexts,

and to persons in vulnerable groups, and to remove barriers to birth registration based on

discrimination against unwed mothers;

9. Also calls upon States to ensure that effective and appropriate remedies are

available to all persons, in particular women and children, whose right to a nationality has

been violated, including restoration of nationality and expedient provision of documentary

proof of nationality by the State responsible for the violation;

10. Encourages relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council,

including the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in

practice, as well as specialized agencies, funds and programmes, and United Nations

entities, including the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Entity for

Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and invites treaty bodies, in

coordination with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to

address and highlight issues relating to the right to a nationality and statelessness within

their mandates;

11. Encourages States to continue to raise these issues in the universal periodic

review process;

12. Also encourages States to consider acceding to the Convention relating to the

Status of Stateless Persons, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and other

relevant international human rights conventions if they have not already done so;

13. Calls upon States to implement their international legal obligations to combat

human trafficking, including the identification of potential victims of trafficking and the

provision of appropriate assistance to stateless persons who may be victims of trafficking,

paying particular attention to the needs and vulnerabilities of trafficked women and

children;

14. Calls upon all States to ensure that all persons, regardless of their nationality

status, enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms;

15. Encourages States to facilitate, in accordance with their national laws, the

acquisition of nationality by children born on their territories or to their nationals abroad

who would otherwise be stateless;

16. Urges States to take concrete action to ensure the full and effective

implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of its

reviews, and to ensure non-discrimination under the law, including with respect to

nationality;

17. Recognizes the importance of international cooperation, and encourages

States to request technical assistance, if required and where appropriate, from relevant

United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes and other relevant stakeholders, in

order to make reforms to eliminate from their nationality laws all forms of discrimination

against women;

18. Encourages States to address women’s equal nationality rights, and the

challenge of statelessness and vulnerability that emerges when they are not fully respected

and implemented, when developing, implementing and monitoring national plans of action

or other relevant mechanisms for the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development, recognizing the need to ensure gender equality and empowerment of women

and girls and to provide legal identity for all; and encourages development actors to support

the capacity of Governments to implement these efforts;

19. Also encourages States to develop and implement national plans of action to

end statelessness, taking into account the guidance set forth in the global 10-year campaign

to end statelessness by 2024 of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees, and further encourages the Office to provide technical assistance to support these

efforts, if requested and as appropriate;

20. Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in

coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

(a) To organize, prior to the thirty-sixth session of the Human Rights Council, a

half-day expert workshop to showcase best practices to promote women’s equal nationality

rights in law and in practice, including the ability of women to confer their nationality on

their spouse;

(b) To encourage States, relevant United Nations bodies, funds and programmes,

intergovernmental organizations, treaty bodies, special procedures, regional human rights

mechanisms, civil society organizations, academia, national human rights institutions and

other relevant stakeholders to participate actively in the workshop;

(c) To prepare a summary report on the above-mentioned workshop, including

any recommendations stemming therefrom, and to submit it to the Human Rights Council

at its thirty-sixth session.

42nd meeting

30 June 2016

[Adopted without a vote.]