Women and Nationality

Women and Nationality

Women and Nationality in 2011

United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): On December 7, 2011, Secretary Clinton delivered remarks at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ministerial on the 60th Anniversary of the Refugee Convention. In the excerpts below from her remarks, which are available at (internet link) state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/12/178406.htm , Secretary Clinton discussed the issue of discrimination against women in the area of nationality laws. The statement of Laurie Shestack Phipps, U.S. Adviser for Economic and Social Affairs, in the Third Committee session on the advancement of women on October 10, 2011 also discusses women's equal right to nationality, and is available at (internet link) usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/2011/175202.htm.

Developments

I want only briefly to mention one [United States pledge to protect and assist refugees] that is a particular priority for us and for me personally. It concerns one of the major causes of statelessness, which is discrimination against women.

At least 30 countries around the world prevent women from acquiring, retaining, or transmitting citizenship to their children or their foreign spouses. And in some cases, nationality laws strip women of their citizenship if they marry someone from another country. Because of these discriminatory laws, women often can't register their marriages, the births of their children, or deaths in their families. So these laws perpetuate generations of stateless people, who are often unable to work legally or travel freely. They cannot vote, open a bank account, or own property, and therefore they often lack access to healthcare and other public services. And the cycle continues, because, without birth registration or citizenship documents, stateless children often cannot attend school.

Details

In this compromised state—or no state, better put—women and children are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, including gender-based violence, trafficking in persons, and arbitrary arrests and detention. That hurts not only the women and their immediate families, but the larger communities. When you have a population of people who are denied the opportunity to participate, they cannot contribute.

The United States has launched an initiative to build global awareness about these issues and support efforts to end or amend such discriminatory laws. We want to work to persuade governments—not only officials but members of parliament—to change nationality laws that carry this discrimination to ensure universal birth registration and establish procedures and systems to facilitate the acquisition of citizenship for stateless people. I encourage other member-states to join this effort, and I want to thank the High Commissioner, who has signaled his support. I encourage UNHCR to work with United Nations Women, UNICEF, UNDP, and other United Nations partners to achieve equal nationality rights for women.

There is so much more governments can do, and even ideas we haven't thought of, to help these and other vulnerable groups. So let's challenge ourselves in the 60th anniversary time to ask: What new strategies can we adopt to better serve the refugees who come to the U.S. borders or empower the stateless people within them? How can we expand and broaden the scope of the U.S. efforts?

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