ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

26. The Committee recalls its previous concluding observations and urges the State party to:

(a) Amend the Nationality Act and the Law on Permanent Residency to allow Qatari women married to noncitizens to transmit without discrimination their nationality to their children from birth, in particular for those children who would otherwise be stateless;

(b) Ensure that children born to unmarried parents receive a birth certificate and other identity documents and that children born to non-Qatari are not deported or separated from their mothers;

(c) Resolve the stateless status of members of the Al-Ghufran clan, particularly children, by providing a clear path to Qatari citizenship and access to education and healthcare;

(d) Consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961;

(e) Seek technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) among others, for the implementation of these recommendations.

35. Recalling its general comment No. 9 (2006) on the rights of children with disabilities, the Committee recalls its previous concluding observations 16 and recommends the State party adopt a human rights-based approach to disability, set up a comprehensive strategy for the inclusion of children with disabilities and:

(b) Enable all children with disabilities living in the State party, including children with disabilities who do not possess Qatari nationality and those who are stateless, to claim and have access to their rights without discrimination, in accordance with the human rights-based approach to disability, and protect them from all forms of disability-based discrimination;

47. Recalling the joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration and its General Comment No. 6 (2005) on treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(f) Consider ratifying the 1951 Convention relating to the Statues of Refugees, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

35. Recalling its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, and its previous recommendation (CEDAW/C/NPL/CO/6, para. 31), the Committee recommends that the State Party:

(a) Accelerate the adoption of the citizenship bill and ensure that it addresses all types of discrimination against Nepali women and their children;

(b) Repeal articles 11 (5) and 11 (7) of the Constitution that prevent Nepali women from transferring citizenship on an equal basis with men to their children, recognizing the independent right of each parent to transfer citizenship by descent;

(c) Amend article 11 (3) of the Constitution to allow for birth registration by the “father or mother”, rather than the “father and mother”, with a view to preventing statelessness;

(d) Amend article 11 (6) of the Constitution to ensure that Nepali women have the right to transfer citizenship to their spouse on the same terms as Nepali men and remove the requirement of self-declaration and penalties for Nepali mothers to transfer citizenship to their children with unidentified fathers;

(e) Ensure universal birth registration for all children regardless of the legal status of their parents, including for children of stateless women, refugees, migrant women and women sex workers, in line with the Constitution and the State Party’s international human rights obligations;

(f) Ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

58. The Committee requests the State Party to provide, within two years, written information on the steps taken to implement the recommendations contained in paragraphs 35 (b) and 35 (c) on nationality, and 53 (c) and 53 (e) on marriage and family relations.

35. The Committee notes with concern that:

(b) The requirement that women with children under two years of age who are seeking overseas employment provide a report on their family background may compel such women to migrate through irregular channels, forcing them to use tourist visas, unauthorized agents or falsified documents when they are unable to obtain official approval, which places them and their children at risk of statelessness and exploitation;

36. In line with article 9 of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendations No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women and No. 26 (2008) on women migrant workers, the Committee recommends that the State Party:

(a) Amend, without delay, the Citizenship Act to ensure that women and men have equal rights with respect to acquiring, transferring, retaining and changing their nationality, and to conferring their nationality on their children, regardless of their marital status or the nationality of their spouse;

(b) Abolish the discriminatory requirement that women with children under two years of age provide a report on their family background, and ensure that women and men have equal rights with respect to seeking employment abroad;

(c) Review and revise procedures for maintaining and recovering Sri Lankan nationality to eliminate discriminatory barriers faced by women who have acquired foreign nationality through marriage abroad, in particular in cases of divorce or widowhood, and ensure that such women have equal access to expedited procedures for nationality retention or restoration, including by (i) simplifying documentary requirements and eliminating additional procedural barriers not imposed on men; (ii) establishing clear guidelines and training for consular and immigration officials on the equal nationality rights of women and men; and (iii) providing legal aid and support services to women seeking to maintain or recover their nationality;

(d) Accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

38. The Committee recommends that the State Party eliminate administrative and practical barriers that prevent disadvantaged groups of women from obtaining national identity cards and other essential documentation by establishing mobile registration units with multilingual staff, accepting alternative forms of proof of identity and residence, implementing simplified procedures for women facing multiple forms of discrimination and providing free legal aid and documentation services for economically disadvant aged women.

32. The Committee recommends that the State Party:

(a) Strengthen efforts to promote and ensure birth registration, particularly in rural areas and among Indigenous women and girls, through such measures as providing incentives for birth registration and conducting awareness-raising on the importance of birth registration, in collaboration with local and traditional leaders and grass-roots civil society organizations;

(b) Collect and standardize the collection of data on birth registration, disaggregated by sex, age, region and other relevant characteristics, and establish mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating awareness-raising and capacity-building efforts;

(c) Accelerate efforts to amend the Nationality Law to ensure that Congolese women have the right to transfer their nationality to their foreign spouses, on an equal basis with Congolese men.

10. The Committee urges the State party to uphold its commitment to women’s human rights, including the right to life, access to justice and the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as well as equality in marriage and family relations. It calls upon the State party to strengthen the application of the Convention in legal proceedings in the State party for the benefit of all women, in particular women migrant domestic workers, women human rights defenders and activists, women in detention, women with disabilities, women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and refugee, asylum-seeking and stateless women. 

26. In line with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) on temporary special measures, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) In adopting and implementing temporary special measures, pay special attention to disadvantaged groups of women, such as Bidoon, stateless and migrant women and girls, women domestic workers, women and girls with disabilities, rural women and girls, older women, women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence;

36. With reference to its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, and recalling its previous recommendation (CEDAW/C/SAU/CO/3-4, para. 42), the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Amend the Nationality Law to recognize the right of Saudi women to transmit their nationality to their children and non-Saudi spouses on equal terms with Saudi men;

(b) Enforce its legislation allowing foreign mothers of Saudi children to register births and obtain documents for their children;

(c) Regularize the situation of stateless women and girls and facilitate their access to Saudi nationality without discrimination;

(d) Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

38. Recalling its general recommendation No. 36 (2017) on the right of girls and women to education, the Committee recommends that the State party raise awareness of the importance of girls’ education as a basis for their empowerment, and:

(e) Allocate the necessary human, technical and financial resources to provide full access to inclusive education for women and girls with disabilities and Bidoon women and girls.

50. Recalling its general recommendation No. 34 (2016) on the rights of rural women, and target 5.a of the Sustainable Development Goals to undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) Ensure that rural women, including Bidoon women and women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, have access to productive means, education, healthcare and other basic services, as well as to labour-saving technologies, markets and services, innovative agricultural technologies, infrastructure, financial support and investment.

6. While noting the measures taken to review the Child Care and Protection Act and child rights-related provisions in national legislation, the Committee is concerned about the need for further progress in amending the Child Care and Protection Act and harmonizing child rights-related provisions in legislation with the Convention. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) Fully align national legislation with the Convention and further address any inconsistencies, including by implementing the recommendations of the National Law Review Taskforce and amending child rights-related provisions in the Child Adoption Act, the Penal Code, the Marriage Act and the Citizenship Act;

19. The Committee reiterates its previous recommendations4 and urges the State party:

(a) To ensure the right of all children, regardless of their parents’ nationality or marital status, to be registered at birth and have access to identity cards, including by: (i) revising the Bhutan Citizenship Act to disassociate birth registration from citizenship and remove the barriers that prevent the birth registration and access to nationality of children of non-Bhutanese or stateless parents; (ii) ensuring that the births of children of unmarried parents, non-Bhutanese parents or mothers with non-Bhutanese spouses are registered in the civil registration system; and (iii) removing the status of “dropout” for children who were not registered within 12 months of birth;

(b) To simplify the documentation requirements for birth registration, particularly for children of parents who do not have the documents required;

(c) To take measures to raise public awareness of the importance of birth registration and of collecting birth certificates;

(d) To ensure that women, including single mothers and Bhutanese women with non-Bhutanese spouses, are granted equal rights to men to confer Bhutanese nationality on their children;

(e) To prevent statelessness among children, develop a procedure to determine the stateless status of children and ensure that every child has the right to a nationality;

(f) To consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

42. Noting with deep concern the lack of progress in repatriating Lhotshampa children from refugee camps in Nepal, the Committee reiterates its previous recommendations and urges the State party:

(b) Ensure that all children belonging to minority groups, including Lhotshampa children, are protected against discrimination and guarantee their rights to nationality, health and education, as well as their rights to enjoy their own culture and practise their religion or beliefs freely.

35. Recalling its previous recommendation (CEDAW/C/MYS/CO/3-5, para. 34) and its general recommendation No. 32 on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee urges the State party to:

(a) Amend the Federal Constitution to remove discriminatory provisions and enable Malaysian women to transmit their nationality to their foreign spouses and their children on an equal basis with men and make the amendments retroactive;

(b) Withdraw the constitutional amendments that would deny automatic conferral of citizenship to children of stateless permanent residents, extend the period during which foreign wives can be deprived of their citizenship and reduce the time available to apply for citizenship for children in “special circumstances”;

(c) Fulfil its pledge to resolve the pending 14,000 applications for Malaysian citizenship by children in “special circumstances” by the end of 2024, and favourably consider these applications with a view to protecting the applicants from statelessness and rights deprivation;

(d) Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

40. With reference to its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(b) Review its legal provisions on citizenship to facilitate the exercise of the right of every child to a nationality; introduce legal safeguards to ensure that every child born in the State party who would otherwise be stateless acquires Singaporean citizenship; modify the residence requirements for parents who are citizens by descent, so that they can always transmit their citizenship to their children if the children would otherwise be stateless; and prohibit the withdrawal of citizenship of a child on account of the parent’s renunciation or deprivation of citizenship, if the child would otherwise become stateless;

(c) Accede to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol thereto, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

60. Recalling its general recommendation No. 21 (1994) on equality in marriage and family relations and its general recommendation No. 29 (2013) on the economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(e) Recognize the equal right of all women, including those in same-sex relationships and non-married women, to parenthood through assisted reproductive technology, and ensure that all children enjoy equal rights to citizenship regardless of their family circumstances.

35. Recalling its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure that women and men have equal rights to transmit their nationality to their foreign spouses and simplify and expedite the naturalization process to reduce periods of legal uncertainty for foreign women married to nationals of the Republic of Korea;

(b) Facilitate affordable access to birth registration and identity documents for migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls, including through online procedures;

(c) Accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

41. In accordance with its general recommendation No. 24 (1999) on women and health and targets 3.1 and 3.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, on reducing global maternal mortality and on ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(c) Undertake a comprehensive review of the 2023 Confidential Birth Bill to address the underlying causes of unregistered births more effectively, with a focus on expanding access to safe abortion services and comprehensive sexuality education, enhancing support services for pregnant women and girls, and implementing targeted measures to reduce the societal stigma associated with single motherhood;

19. The Committee welcomes the establishment of a committee to review legislation related to women. It notes with concern, however, that discriminatory provisions remain in force, including in the Personal Status Act (No. 51 of 1984), the Criminal Code, the Nationality Act of 1959 and the Private Sector Labour Act (No. 6 of 2010).

20. (...) It urges the State party to take immediate action to review and amend its laws to remove all provisions that discriminate against women and girls.

44. The Committee recommends that the State party amend the Nationality Act to recognize the right of Kuwaiti women to transmit their nationality to non-Kuwaiti spouses and children on equal terms with Kuwaiti men. It also recommends that the State party immediately discontinue the practice of placing children born out of wedlock or as a result of rape in orphanages and ensure that their mothers are not subject to criminal prosecution or deportation.

46. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Regularize the situation of members of the bidun community, to ensure their full enjoyment of fundamental rights, freedom from discrimination and equal access to opportunities, including social services, health care (including maternal health care), education, decision-making systems and employment;

(b) Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.